Digimon Futures
by Rogue2k7
Summary: In the far future, a college student receives a digimon partner and finds himself teaming up with several people, including a computer hacker and a couple of his classmates. He's soon on a journey that could either change many worlds for the better or destroy them. A fan season mixed in with hard science fiction elements.
1. Pilot

Pilot

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Forward: Well, I never thought I'd do this, but I started another fanfic, even though Those Left Behind isn't completely finished. One thing I've noticed on this website is that there doesn't seem to be much originality anymore, which is unfortunate. I know, you'll occasionally see a fic that tries to break the mold, but more often than not, almost every story I've seen is the same old shipping story, some involving couples that shouldn't exist in the first place (shudders…). Some don't even involve digimon, something I'm trying to focus more on in this story, particularly their personalities and their relationships with their human partners.

Anyway, this story definitely contains things you probably wouldn't see in other digimon stories. It's an elsewhere fic taking place in an alternate universe, but there's more than that. For one thing, the characters are college-aged or even older (one character is firmly middle-aged). Another thing, if the title didn't give it away, is that this story takes place in the far future, though due to some setbacks, technology is fairly near-future in its presentation. And then there's the case with the real and digital worlds. You'll find out that the nature of each isn't exactly what you'd expect, the former in this chapter and the latter later on.

Also, I'd like to put it out there that this story has a website: aklaino dot com / digimon (remove the spaces and replace the dot with a period). There aren't any pictures up, unfortunately, and it's not as flashy as some sites for fan seasons (Digimon Reboot comes to mind), but it does give you some extra info about this story and it allowed me to practice my web design and javascript skills. Anyway, I hope whoever reads this enjoys what I have planned.

###

**Python Desert, Digital World, Assembler Continent**

The harsh desert sun beat against his reddish feathers, causing the large bird to chug another swig from his flask as he wandered through the desolate landscape, ready for whatever he found.

Hawkmon was simply a scientist and one that ended up in the crosshairs of the local tyrannical government that ruled his area of the digital world. It didn't help that the ruler of that government, Ornismon, was trying to eradicate anyone he perceived as a threat to his rule, including educated digimon who didn't see any value in fighting. The Avian Duchy was headed for war with the neighboring kingdoms of the Digital World and Hawkmon wasn't about to let himself get caught in the middle of it.

He pulled out his recording device and spoke.

"About two weeks ago, I detected strange reading coming from the center of the Python Desert and I have chosen to investigate. Since my ruler has decided to ban me from improving my education, I have decided to embark on this journey for myself." The bird took a deep breath, being careful to look around him in case any brigands came out of the woodwork to attack him. So far he seemed to be the only one there in that parched land. "I am convinced that what I will find will change the world, though I have no idea what it may be. Still, a good part of a scientist's job is to investigate, which is what I shall do."

He turned off the recorder and continued moving forward, drinking from his flask at regular intervals. There was nothing for him in any of the feudal states of the Digital World, though he didn't have much of an alternative. He considered actually traveling across the sea to see what was over there, but as a rookie, he probably wouldn't last very long doing so. Finding the anomaly was the only option.

It took him several hours to find the source of the strange emissions, but there it was in the center of the desert, right on the ground. It was a strange, translucent sphere that appeared to have nothing on the inside. At least Hawkmon didn't see anything.

"What in the world is this thing?" he asked himself, not expecting an answer. He promptly pulled off his backpack and took out some instruments to scan the object but he was getting a negative reading. All he could guess was that it was some sort of hole in the fabric of space-time, but beyond that he was drawing a blank.

In time he would figure it out, but for now he just studied it, hoping that none of Ornismon's forces went this far into the desert.

###

**Victory University, Victory City**

A blue motorcycle made its way down the streets of downtown Victory City, cruising along at fairly high speeds until its red-haired rider reached the turnoff, slowed down, turned on his blinker and turned, making his way onto campus.

It was his first year and he was finally arriving that afternoon, only a few days before class started. He parked his motorcycle, made sure its parking sticker was perfectly visible to whoever patrolled those parking lots and stepped off his bike, putting its keys in his pocket.

There weren't too many cars in the specific parking lot that he parked in, one of many that the university had. He wasn't commuting so he had to park a bit farther in the residents' lot, so it took him a few minutes to walk to the building his dorm room was in. He walked in and saw a bespectacled blonde girl at the front desk, probably a fellow student working off part of her tuition. She was the one who spoke to him.

"Hi, how are you doing today?" she greeted with a smile that he just knew was fake.

"Pretty good. I'm here to take my stuff to my room," he told her. "The name's Slade Bennett."

"Okay, just a minute," the girl said, typing in his name. "Okay, you're in room 438." She handed him a key. Her perkiness was kind of cute, even though Slade didn't buy even a little bit of it.

"So, has my roommate checked in yet?" he asked.

"Nope, according to this he hasn't. His name is Trevor Jackson. I don't know anything other than that," the girl explained. "Let me know if there's anything wrong with your room."

"Okay, thanks," Slade responded, making his way to a nearby elevator. He felt pretty nervous since this was actually his first time out of the house and he thought about that as he went up. He also wondered what his roommate was going to be like. He pulled his goggles over his eyes and turned them on, trying to bring up information on his mysterious roommate.

Thankfully, he found a quick social network page but found it was locked as soon as the elevator reached his floor. _Good, this guy's smart. _There was a picture of the guy. He was black and was with a girl that wasn't really Slade's type. She was a bit too curvy for him and she was a white brunette.

_Then again, she's probably more real than any girl I've dated, _Slade thought as he got off the elevator and pulled his smart goggle's up. They were very useful when finding the university since he was new in town and they synced with his cellphone. He walked down the hall a little bit, found his room and slid the keycard into the door. It reminded him a bit too much of various hotels he had been in over the years as he opened it up, walking inside to find a small one-bedroom apartment with two twin-sized beds in it. Slade just picked one and put his stuff down on its memory foam matress.

He didn't have much stuff with him, having left almost everything behind in Union City where he was from. He looked out the window and saw across the campus. It was practically a small city in the center of a far larger city. He looked over at the skyscrapers against the backdrop of nearby mountains. The city was quite beautiful. He didn't remember taking it in like this during his previous visits.

It truly was a new start for him and he was going to take advantage of it as much as possible.

He went over and opened up his large duffle bag, pulling out a box with a brand new tablet inside. He pulled it out of its packaging and started setting the device up. After a few minutes, he had everything set up that he needed and promptly turned on the news. He was interested in the massive particle accelerator that was set up in the nearby countryside and turned on a news story about that.

_"The protests have reached a new high in the hours before the accelerator's activation," _a red-haired reporter stated before going on about everything. Slade thought the amount of controversy surrounding the accelerator was a bit overblown, thinking about how there were other particle accelerators where nothing wrong happened. Supposedly this accelerator was going to put together elements in the Superactinide series as well as various subatomic particles that nobody had ever even heard of.

Still, it was interesting. After a while, Slade got bored again and decided to explore campus. There was a lot there to see, including a few things that he hadn't seen during his orientation. The sun was beginning to set, though, and he realized he was starting to feel more than a little bit hungry. He made his way to the university cafeteria and grabbed something, thankful for his meal plan. He then sat down in a corner away from everybody else.

It was nice to be away from home.

###

**Digital World**

Hawkmon continued to scan the mysterious sphere. "Researcher's log, I have determined that this object is a hole in space-time, though it seems to only be open on this end. More than likely it is part of a wormhole, though to where is something I cannot determine. I can't seem to see the other side of it, unfortunately, so I cannot risk entering into it."

The bird glanced around again. It was approaching night and he would have to make camp soon. Hawkmon felt more than a little paranoid looking around, fearing that someone could be after him. The sad thing was that it wasn't too farfetched of an assumption.

He listened to the night air. It was starting to get cooler quickly and pretty soon he would have to build a fire. Thankfully, he had brought some firewood, but he wasn't going to put it all together just yet.

As soon as it got dark enough, the bird flew upwards and looked over the horizon just in case. Hawkmon didn't spot anything at first, but then he noticed a large, hovering figure in the distance. "Oh, dear," he said, shivering. It was definitely a bit colder at higher altitudes.

He needed to figure out what exactly he was going to do. He dropped down, looking at the hole. There was no way he was going to be able to force open the other side. It was at a subatomic width at the moment, possibly even shifting places, so he had a feeling that going through would be suicide.

"There is no way out of this unless I run," Hawkmon told himself. "But if Ornismon's group finds this, then there's no telling what they'd do."

He couldn't digivolve. There was no way. He had heard legends of the past, digimon able to digivolve at will with some sort of external help, but he had no idea what that could have possibly been. All the legends pointed to something that wasn't a digimon helping out in the process.

The bird stood there, taking in the late night air. Hoping for a miracle before whatever it was came.

###

**Victory City, Particle Accelerator**

The scientists turned on the accelerator, flipping switches at will and typing in info onto the computers. "Generators are at maximum," one of the department scientists stated.

"All detectors are up and running," another scientist said.

"Everything seems to be ready for the accelerator to go on line," a female scientist said.

"Okay, now let's start with something simple. Unbinilium," the director, a tall, bearded and heavyset man in his 50s, ordered.

"Starting acceleration," one of the scientists said as he pressed a button on his screen. "So far so good."

"The Niobium and the Uranium are both approaching light speed," another scientist indicated. "Time for collision in five… four… three… two… one…"

Unfortunately, something went completely wrong after that. "Detecting Unbinilium-299 but…" Another scientist said before sparks started to come out of his console.

"What was that?" the lead scientist asked, gritting his teeth.

"That wasn't supposed to happen! I'm detecting other particles along with the Unbinilium, sir. Doctor Barrowman, some of these particles are displaying behavior indicative of negative mass!"

"What? But… how is that even possible?" the director asked.

"Sir, it has to do with the radiation released. Some of the particles are inverting somehow!" another scientist, a female one exclaimed. "Oh no, that's _not_ supposed to happen."

"What is it now?" Doctor Barrowman inquired.

"Someone sabotaged the system and there are now a number of small, artificial black holes. They've evaporated, emitting Hawking radiation which caused the inversion," the same scientist explained.

"You've got to be kidding me. Who would…" Suddenly, the computer screens all turned black and a voice spoke from them.

_"Hello, a new world is beginning. Pretty soon, both this world and the other will be one." _It was the voice of a man, though it was heavily distorted, sending chills down the director's spine.

"Who is this?" he asked.

_"The answer is not important. All you should know is that the world is changing. Wormholes are about to open to the other side and they will come through."_

"Wormholes? Who are coming through? Aliens?"

_"In a way, Barrowman." _The voice stopped transmitting and a bomb exploded in the facility.

"Sir, the negatively massed particles are escaping into the atmosphere."

"Wormholes… Is there any way we can detect when these open?" Doctor Barrowman asked, panicking. This wasn't supposed to happen. He knew there were nutcases out there but he had no idea that anyone would be willing to go this far.

"They developed a method before the fall," one of the other scientists replied, "but the only ones with that information are the Families."

"You've got to be kidding me," the director responded, dreading the thought of even making dealings with the most reasonable memory of the Families. "What about detecting concentrations of negatively massed particles?"

"We should be able to do that," the female scientist responded.

"Make it so," Director Barrowman ordered. They were going to solve this problem some way or another.

###

After dinner, Slade grabbed his duffle bag, put some workout clothes and swim trunks inside and jogged to the university recreation center. He felt like working out to relieve some stress and he was curious about the amenities that the rec center provided. At the same time, there was a side of him that was paranoid that it wasn't going to be as good as other gyms such as the two-storied one he used to go to back in Union City.

Slade felt a shiver down his spine and stopped. That was when he realized that he had made a mistake in going into the darkest area of the campus and that there was now a man in a balaclava with a gun held up to his head.

"Give me all your money!" the robber shouted in his ear as loudly as possible.

"Okay, okay, here you go," Slade pleaded, handing the man his wallet. "Please, leave me alone."

The man looked inside the wallet at a wad of hundred-dollar bills and grinned. "Wow, you're rich. You're coming with me now!"  
>"What?"<p>

"I'm going to take you and hold you for ransom. Your family is going to pay for my tuition or you're going to die," the robber demanded.

"What? You can't do that!" Slade exclaimed, almost more worried about his family finding him than the madman killing him.

"Yeah? Well, it's not like you have any choice. Come with me or I'll shoot you in the leg!"

"No!" Slade exclaimed, hyperventilating. He didn't notice the slight glow around him when he yelled that.

###

"No!" Hawkmon heard from the other side of the wormhole inside the digital world. He looked on the other side.

"What is this?" he mused, his beak open wide. It was right on time because it was about then that a large, grey dragonfly flew over the horizon. The bird looked through the wormhole and saw a man holding a gun. "I guess I could be facing worse." Then Hawkmon jumped through, flying straight through the spherical hole in space and into the robber, knocking the gun upwards as the man fired, causing him to miss his intended target. The wormhole closed behind the bird as he tackled the robber, causing him to fall to the ground.

Hawkmon glanced up at the human that he had just inadvertently saved from serious injury, though he felt something at his foot. He picked up the strange, black, leathery object and handed it to the human. "Does this belong to you?"

"Uh, thanks. That's my wallet. You just saved my life!" The bird then got a tight hug from the human.

"Okay, whatever you are," the bird responded. It was then that he noticed the spherical wormhole open up again. "I'm afraid that you might have to hold onto that. Something else is coming out!"

"What?" the human asked as the same giant dragonfly that was pursuing Hawkmon came through, ready to strike the bird. "What the heck is going on?"

"I'm trying to figure that out."

"Oh crap! I'm totally getting out of here!" the robber exclaimed, running off with his gun in hand.

"I should probably go too," the human said, scared out of his mind. Hawkmon grabbed onto his hand. If the legends were true…

"Wait a second, please. We can fight this enemy together," the giant bird told him. "I'm Hawkmon, by the way."

"Slade." The giant bug flew upwards and made a loop-de-loop back down towards Hawkmon. "On second thought, maybe I should run!" Slade decided, making a dash. Hawkmon looked upward at the giant bug headed his way, however it didn't bother with the oversized bird and instead went after the human that had decided to run away.

"Slade!" Hawkmon yelled, jumping into the air and flying after the enemy digimon, but he knew that he was far too slow to go after him. The human that he had saved just minutes before looked back briefly and saw exactly the kind of situation he had put himself into. "No!" the bird exclaimed, realizing what had happened. "I'm the one you want!"

It was because of Hawkmon that this innocent human bystander had ended up in this situation, and there was no way that the bird was going to let anything happen to him. SandYanmamon continued to fly after Slade, far faster than anything Hawkmon could do, but the bird wasn't about to give up, so he landed and grabbed the feather on top of his head and flung it at the enemy. "Feather Strike!"

That got SandYanmamon's attention and the digimon turned around and went straight for Hawkmon. _At least now he won't attack the… whatever he is. _Still, he needed to win this fight and it wasn't as if he could digivolve unless somehow the human helped, so he figured he needed as much strategy as possible. He couldn't see anything useful against his champion-level opponent, just some streetlights, benches and buildings. _At least no one else is around to get in danger._

He readied himself, glancing over at the human who had realized what had happened and turned around. The bird had a few tricks up his sleeve. As soon as SandYanmamon was only a few meters from Hawkmon, the bird jumped up into the air and brought his beak down on the giant dragonfly, pecking into its head. "Beak Pecker!"

As soon as the bird pecked into the dragonfly's head, he flipped over, landing behind the dragonfly who continued onward. Unfortunately, all the rookie did was make the giant dragonfly angry and it looped around, ready to strike again.

But this time, it got more resistance than it expected when Slade came at him with his fists. Unfortunately, the tamer didn't manage to do anything more than tick off the dragonfly who simply brushed him aside. The dragonfly decided then to go after the young man and looped around once again, ready to attack.

"No!" Hawkmon yelled, jumping up into the air.

"What the-!" Slade yelled as he saw the dragonfly head toward him. He didn't want to die, especially at the hands of a giant bug from another planet so soon after getting freedom from his family. There was no way. Luckily, he rolled out of the way just in time for the massive dragonfly to have to make another pass just to get at him.

All the sudden, Slade noticed a small sphere of light appear and a device similar to his smart phone came out. Except that it was to one with rounded corners, a couple of small buttons, and a large button in the middle. What wowed him the most were the colors, though: it was blue with red buttons and a red border around the touchscreen. And it was glowing.

Suddenly, it shined with blinding light and Slade had to look away. The beam of light made its way to Hawkmon, who suddenly felt empowered by the beam.

_So, this is how the legends go?_

"Hawkmon digivolve to… Aquilamon!" The large bird changed into an even larger reddish-brown bird, with a tremendous wingspan and a pair of horns on his head.

SandYanmamon noticed this and made his way toward his new target, feeling a need to take out the stronger of his opponents first before going after the weaker one. He flew at him, but Aquilamon flew upward, determined to take this fight away from the middle of the university complex. They were lucky no one else had come through the area, one of the darkest parts of the university, but he wasn't going to let that luck run out.

As soon as SandYanmamon was in mid-air, Aquilamon turned around, readying his horns and dive-bombing the massive dragonfly. "Grand Horn!" he yelled as he did so, brutally injuring the fellow champion across the chest.

The dragonfly rebounded, making another loop and headed straight for Aquilamon again, this time readying another attack, but Aquilamon was ready and opened his mouth. "Blast Rings!" he yelled as rings of red energy flew out, striking the dragonfly head on, ripping him to shreds and causing him to disintegrate into data. The data then coalesced back into a digi-egg and it fell down to the ground, remaining whole.

After everything was done, Aquilamon flew downwards and devolved back into Hawkmon, landing in front of his new partner, a shocked Slade.

"That was … amazing!" the red-haired man exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm glad you thought so," another voice said, causing Slade and Hawkmon to turn their heads. They saw a man with a white mask covering his eyes with long blond hair. His attire was odd but evoked the image of aristocracy with a white vest with a light blue tie and a long white trench coat. At the same time, he had a strange accent, an odd thing to Slade.

"Your accent… where are you from?" he asked. "And what's going on here?"

"You may know me as Prior and I am from another world."

Slade's eyes widened when he said that. "No way," he responded to the mysterious masked man.

"It is truth," Prior responded. "You are the first of this world to receive a partner digimon, but you won't be the last. You are the beginning of a revolution that will change this world for the better. I know about what you've been through, Slade, and how you've rejected the debaucheries and corruption of the Families. You will lead this world to greatness."

Slade looked the man in the eye, hidden behind one-way mirrors on the man's mask. "This is… You've got to be joking."

"I am not," the man responded. "Now, I will take that digi-egg from you. Your teammates will be joining you on this journey soon." The man walked over to the digi-egg, picked it up and tossed down a smoke bomb. When the smoke had dissipated, he was gone.

"What is going on?" Hawkmon asked, as confused as Slade was.

"I'm not quite sure myself," Slade replied.

"I guess I'm supposed to go home with you," the oversized bird told him, hesitant.

Slade didn't know what to do, exactly. "I guess so…" he responded. In fact, he didn't know how he was going to do this. All the sudden, he had a creature from another world with him. He had no idea how his roommate would react or even how the receptionist in the dorm building he was living would react. Still, he couldn't leave this digimon behind. "Okay, you'll come home with me, it's just that we can't let anybody see you so you'll have to go in my bag."

Hawkmon nodded. "Okay, that sounds good." So, Slade zipped his bag open and the digimon went inside, thankful that it was big enough.

###

When Slade entered his dorm building, he noticed the same receptionist girl from earlier sitting at the front desk, looking at something on her computer. She glanced up and smiled. "Hey."

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Pretty good, though you should have seen what happened earlier. I mean, this guy in a ski mask just ran in, screaming about a giant bird and a giant bug attacking." She pointed at her head and moved her index finger around. "Talk about wacko. He was waving a gun around and everything so I called campus security." She then looked Slade in the eye. "You didn't see anything weird out there yourself, did you? I mean, not that there could possibly be any giant birds or bugs, but, you know."

"No, not a thing," Slade responded nervously, giving her an uneasy grin.

"You are totally lying. Then again, I can't blame you since if I saw something like that, nobody would believe me. That was a pretty quick trip to the gym for you, though. Only enough for one or two workouts and that's without changing." She smiled at him. "My name's Penelope Vaughn, by the way."

"Slade Bennett," he told her.

"And I already knew that. I checked you in earlier," she chastised herself while she looked at her computer. "Oh, wow, it's almost time to close. See you later." She smiled at him again as he went up the escalator.

"Wow, that was pretty close. You really think they'd freak out if they saw me?" Hawkmon asked from within the giant red gym bag.

"Probably," Slade responded as the elevator door opened and he walked out the elevator door and down the hall.

"You know, you clothes are awfully smelly in here. When was the last time you washed them?" the large bird asked as Slade opened his dorm door and walked inside.

"Just a couple days ago," he said, putting the bag on his bed and zipping it open. Hawkmon took a deep breath as he came up for air. "Sorry about that."

"This must be a lot to take in," the bird told him. "It is for me too."

"Yeah, it is. So, what planet are you from?" Slade asked out of the blue.

"The Digital World. Well, it's not much of a planet and more of a separate dimension… I think," the bird explained.

"And here I thought you were just an alien from another planet. I know you couldn't possibly be from anywhere within sixty light-years of here, but whatever," the red-haired man replied.

"I'm not exactly sure what you mean. So, how many humans _are _there, anyway?" the bird asked, curious.

"It's hard to say," Slade replied. He had wondered what the answer to that question was himself. "A couple hundred years ago… Well, we were all over the place, living in a sphere 120 light-years in diameter and on many worlds, including this one. Then we were all cut off from each other. Technology went backwards for a while but now it's back to going forward again."

"And you never heard anything about digimon?"

Slade shook his head. "Nobody knows what exactly the Fall was, but I'm pretty sure we never met your kind before then. This planet's name is Lincoln and it was colonized in the mid-twenty-second century by people from the former United States of America. There are a half a billion people on this world."

Hawkmon thought for a second. "That's pretty interesting. However, I heard about humans or someone before meeting you. According to legend, you have the power to help us achieve higher levels through the use of emotion. I guess the legends were true, but for them to be true, we had to have met your race in the past."

Slade nodded. "Crazy. That must have been hundreds of years ago."

"Maybe we'll find out on our own when it was and what happened," the large bird responded with a smile.

###

While Penelope locked the doors to the reception area, she glanced around outside for anything out of the ordinary. That Slade boy was definitely hiding something and she wondered what exactly. Still, she realized a need to be cautious.

She left the reception area and made her way to her dorm on the topmost story of the building before sliding her keycard in, opening it up and entering. After turning on the lights, though, she noticed something strange on her desk, a pink device that reminded her of a smart phone like what everyone had those days. That wasn't there before.

She walked over to it and turned it on. All she got was a map giving her directions.

She wasn't willing to hazard what it was, but she had a feeling Slade knew and she was going to ask him the following morning.

###

Doctor Barrowman sat in his office that night with a bottle of scotch. He only drank alcohol on special occasions and when he felt down. That night was definitely an example of the latter. So far, their wormhole detection grid wasn't up yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time before either aliens or humans from one of the other colony worlds came through and he wasn't going to hazard that they were friendly.

He was going to find out who did this and they were going to pay. But first, he needed to make a call, so he grabbed the cordless phone and called one of his best benefactors, the patriarch of the Giorno family. He hated the thought of dealing with any of the Families, but Garrett Giorno was probably the one member of the Families that he could trust. After a few seconds, he got someone.

"Hello, is Mr. Giorno there?" he asked, his tone serious. After a few seconds, he got the man he was asking for. "Hi, the particle accelerator was hijacked earlier this evening and we may have a crisis on our hands."

###


	2. Penelope Vaughn

Chapter 2: Penelope Vaughn

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the characters within.

###

**Victory City Intercontinental Airport**

The morning after the sabotage of the particle accelerator, Professor Barrowman waited at the gate in the local airport for Garrett Giorno to show up. The man appeared right on time coming out of his private jet. He was skinny, of average height with short blond hair buzzed to only a couple of centimeters from the scalp and was wearing a basic blue suit and tie. The thing that was most different about him had to have been his age: a biological late teens or early twenties. The last time the Professor had seen him he looked to be in his mid-forties, so this must have been the result of the rejuvenation technology that the Families had to themselves.

"How are you doing today, Professor?" the man asked.

"Pretty good. Now, about that…" Barrowman said before getting cut off by the man in front of him.

"First, let's get to my limo and then we'll talk. The walls have ears, you know." The older-looking, bearded man nodded as he followed the young-looking man through the terminal and out the exit where he had a limo waiting for him. In addition, they had security personnel flanking them at all times, an unfamiliar thing for Professor Barrowman since most people wouldn't really recognize him in public.

After scanning the inside of the limousine for bugs, and removing a couple, the two men made it inside while the security went into another vehicle where they would watch using infrared for anything suspicious. Then, once the two men were secure, the limo started to move.

Garrett spoke first. "So, Professor, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

"You probably know that the particle accelerator was sabotaged?" The bearded man received a nod from his benefactor. "Okay, now get this, it was sabotaged by someone with an agenda: to create negative-massed matter and use it to create wormholes along some of the tears where they were used prior to the fall."

Giorno looked concerned. "Was this person trying to communicate with someone over interstellar distances or something?"

Barrowman shook his head and frowned. "No, worse. Apparently he plans on creating a connection between this world and another, apparently by creating traversable wormholes of some sort."

"That's bad…" The man narrowed his eyes and looked out the window at the city outside. They were currently traveling at 120 kilometers per hour along the freeway disguised as a wedding party. "Has anything come from the other side?"

"As far as we know, no, but we have no way of knowing for sure. For all we know, we could be dealing with shape shifting aliens or covert ops from another of the former colony worlds. All we know we know from a message saying that the two worlds would become one and that the world is changing." The older-looking man stroked his temples.

"That's… not good," the Giorno patriarch said with a frown. "It's beginning. And after all this time I thought we would be spared."

"What is it?" Barrowman asked, deeply disturbed by the cryptic speech coming from Garrett Giorno's mouth.

"You see, about a hundred years ago, we received an encrypted data package transmitted from Londinium via radio waves."

Barrowman's eyes widened. "You're joking. That's over a hundred light-years away on the other side of the old Hegemony."

"Meaning it took over a hundred years to get here. What the package contained was information about monsters coming over from another world and bonding with people. The results were chaos due to the worst possible people having these monsters as partners and using them. As a result, the entire planet was engulfed in a massive war between factions using these powerful monsters as weapons."

Barrowman sat there silent for a second. "We have to get everyone on this as soon as possible."

Giorno nodded. "Perhaps, but only once we know for sure that there is a threat. Plus, we have to make sure we prevent widespread panic in the process. Unfortunately, there's another thing wrong with these creatures from another world: apparently most conventional weapons don't work on them above a certain power level."

"That's… not good."

"No, it's not," Garrett replied. "Well, it's been good talking with you, Professor. Keep in touch with me as things develop."

Barrowman nodded. "I will."

###

**Victory University**

At first, Saturday morning was pretty quiet for Slade. He even got to sleep in a little bit until he was unceremoniously woken up by his door opening up and someone really loud coming in.

"Oh my gosh! I thought the receptionist said that my roommate didn't check in yet!" Slade heard Trevor Jackson exclaim as he entered into the room with two large suitcases, wearing large aviator glasses and a Hawaiian shirt along with some dress slacks. His girlfriend was close behind, something that caused Slade to do a double take. It didn't help that he was sleeping in his boxers.

"Couldn't you have knocked?" Slade asked, getting up out of bed.

"Oh no, he's in his underwear. Maybe I should come back another time," Trevor's girlfriend suggested.

"That's okay. See you later, sweetie," Trevor told his girlfriend and they kissed on the lips before parting. The girl left the room and shut the door behind her. Then Trevor turned to Slade with his hands on his hips. "You scared off my girlfriend."

Slade was at least a little indignant. "You came in here without me knowing. You should have called upstairs or at least knocked. I had no idea you were coming." He then got up and pulled a shirt and pants out of his dresser and started putting them on.

"Oh, come on, who sleeps in until 9:30 in the morning. Gosh!" Trevor said, lying back on his bed.

"For crying out loud, it's not like I had anything else to do," Slade replied, pulling on his pants.

"How about finding out where your classes are? Ever consider doing that?" the dark-skinned man inquired.

"I have all flipping day!" Slade glanced over at his nightstand where his goggles, smart phone and digivice were. Digivice… _Where's Hawkmon?_

He hurriedly grabbed all three items and put them in his pockets. "What kind of idiot has two cell phones?" Trevor asked, receiving a glare from Slade.

"Not important. Now, enjoy the rest of your day in your new room, watching some stupid reality show," Slade told him.

Trevor grabbed his tablet and turned it on. "Oh, I will. There's a new 'Growing up Giorno' online." Slade shuddered as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

###

After a few minutes of guessing where Hawkmon was, Slade found him on the roof after looking through his digivice for a way to track his partner. The bird was looking over the city below, taking in the sites. He looked behind as Slade walked up to him before sitting down next to him.

The bird was the one to speak. "Well, hello there. I'm sorry I wasn't around when you got up. It's hard for me to be cooped in all day."

"Not a problem," the red-haired man said as he sat next to the digimon. "I just met my roommate."

"How is he?"

"Kind of a prissy dirtbag, if you want to sum him up," Slade responded with a bit of amusement on his face.

"You got off to a bad start?" the bird asked.

"A bit of one, yeah." Slade chuckled a bit before his face turned into a frown.

"Well, I didn't have a good college roommate at first. Then it turned out to be a misunderstanding," Hawkmon explained. "We eventually became pretty good friends."

"Cool. What do you suggest so I don't end up having to change rooms?" Slade inquired.

"Ask him questions," the bird suggested. "You'd be surprised at what you have in common. Perhaps you even have the same major."

"Yeah, that's a good one to ask," the redhead responded, scratching his chin and grinning. "So, I was thinking of going to the cafeteria to get something to eat. You want to come?"

"Sure, though I might need a disguise, unless you want me to go in your bag again."

Slade grimaced. "Uh, I'm not sure what to do about. It's not like I can just grab something to eat and bring it up here. I don't think they let you take food out of the cafeteria."

"I'll just go in your bag."

"You sure?" Slade asked, concerned for his partner.

"Certainly," the digimon replied, smiling.

"I'm going to go to the gym after this too, though, since I didn't get a shower this morning," Slade warned the digimon.

"That shouldn't be a problem," the bird responded. "I'll find something to do."

###

While Slade ate breakfast, carefully sneaking bites of food to Hawkmon in the process, he glanced around at all the other students in the school. For the most part, they were all in groups of people, though he sat alone in the corner, partially because he wasn't in the mood for meeting new people and partially because he had a digimon hiding in his duffle bag eating Danishes. There were quite a few other students eating alone, though. One of note to Slade for some reason was a heavyset guy with curly brown hair eating his food rather messily while typing rather quickly on his tablet computer's Bluetooth keyboard in between bites. He just reminded Slade of an old friend for some reason.

Still, he found people watching to be kind of boring, not to mention rather creepy, so he quickly diverted his attention to his own tablet and looked at some of the latest news stories. "The Barrowman Labs Particle Accelerator was sabotaged last night? Man, those protesters don't know when to quit…" The story didn't mention anything about wormholes or who the saboteur was, so he didn't make the connection between that and the appearance of digimon in the real world.

He had to feel sorry for the professor behind it, though, especially since he was going to have him for a physics class that semester starting Monday. He looked at the time on the upper right-hand corner of his tablet and thought that it might be a good idea to go see where his rooms were after working out and showering.

Slade glanced up from his tablet momentarily to see the receptionist from his dorm building heading straight for his table. She was definitely his type, though he wanted to avoid relationships for the time being due to his last couple ending rather badly, so he immediately suppressed the desire to ask the girl out. Still, he smiled at her as she sat down across from him.

"Hi, how's it going? You weren't the one who didn't mention that I was in my dorm room already this morning, were you?" he asked with a bit of a tease in his voice.

"No, I wasn't working this morning. Why? What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"Well, my roommate just kind of barged into the room while I was asleep at about 9:30 along with his girlfriend. I was only wearing my underwear," he explained, glad it wasn't her.

The girl cringed. "Ouch! I've heard some pretty ridiculous stories of people walking in on their roommates without knowing they're there. That couldn't have been a good start for your relationship."

"No, it definitely wasn't. The girlfriend was nice about it. He, on the other hand…" Slade shuddered at the memory of the heated exchange. "I can definitely imagine how it could be worse, though. What's your name again?"

"Penelope Vaughn. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about this since I found it in my room and I didn't know what it was." She pulled out her pink device, almost identical to the one that Slade received just the day before. He looked at it in astonishment.

"No way, that means that…" He pulled out the device. "You have a digimon."

"What?" she asked in confusion. "What's a digimon supposed to be?"

"Well, a monster from another world. I have one right here, actually," he told her, lifting up Hawkmon by the armpits. He glanced around the cafeteria, thankful that nobody seemed to pay heed to the giant talking bird. "Say hi, Hawkmon!"

"Uh, it's nice to make your acquaintance," the digimon greeted nervously.

"Yeah, he's kind of formal like that," Slade told her with a smile before putting the poor digimon down.

"Wait, so I get one of those… toys?" she asked, still rather confused.

"Yeah, you just get a monster that you can use to defend this world from the other world for whatever, though I don't know why we don't just call the police or something. Maybe we could get together an army like on Old Earth." He chuckled. "Then again, who knows? Maybe conventional weapons don't work on these guys. Maybe they're advanced AI or robotics run amok and we have to use EMPs at the risk of screwing up all electronics in the area."

Penelope looked at him like he was nuts. "Okay, that's more than a little weird, though your guy is kind of cute." She smiled. "Maybe mine will be cute too."

"We could go and find him. Let me see your… whatever it's called."

"A digivice," Hawkmon explained from the duffle bag.

"Digivice? Did you just make that one up?" Slade asked.

"That's what they were called in the old legends, I think," the digimon clarified.

Slade took Penelope's digivice from off the table and played with the buttons. It was automatically on a sort of map application and the redhead couldn't get it out of that. "I guess it's trying to take you somewhere with this map and everything. You ever consider following it?" he asked her.

"Look at where it's telling me to go," Penelope told him. "The factory district, just a couple miles away. That's not exactly the safest part of town for me to be in."

Slade nodded. "Okay, I'll go with you."

"Slade, don't you still have to take a shower?" Hawkmon asked.

"I can wait a little bit on that," the redhead told his partner. "So, you want to do this?"

"Sure, though, I'm not going to be going with you for any sort of saving the world stuff," she told him point blank. "I just want to see where this takes me."

Slade grinned. "Alright, let's get going."

###

"So, what kind of car do you have, anyway?" Penelope asked as they approached the parking lot.

Slade's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, I forgot. I just have a motorcycle."

"Oh, okay, that's fine," Penelope replied. "We can take mine, it's alright."

Slade breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he didn't have to ride on a motorcycle with both a girl he barely knew and his partner who was conveniently in his duffel bag at the moment. He followed Penelope through a parking lot that was only sparsely filled with cars until he reached Penelope's car, about three rows in. "So, this is yours, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, get in," she told him, opening up the car door. It was a mid-sized SUV, an older model that was covered dark green paint that was seriously beginning to fade. "What did you expect? A Lamborghini?"

"You know we don't have access to those anymore after Lincoln got cut off from the core worlds," he told her with a smirk as he opened up the passenger side door. "Oh, yeah, Hawkmon, you can come out now. You get to sit in the back."

The bird jumped out of the duffel bag, elated. "Oh, good, it was so smelly in there. Are you sure you wash your clothes often enough."

Slade just gave his partner a dirty look. "Just get in the back seat."

He sat in the front as his partner sat in back just behind him. Penelope looked them both over. "Remember to put on your seat belts. If I get pulled over, you have to pay."

Slade immediately buckled his and so did Hawkmon in imitation of his partner.

The drive was fairly uneventful, though Penelope and Slade did talk a little bit about their lives, Penelope a lot more than Slade.

"So, what's your major?" he asked as she pulled into where her digivice was taking her.

"Cyber Security with a minor in Computer Science. I'm actually thinking of doing a double major," she told him.

"Ah, you're a hacker. Cool," he replied.

"An ethical hacker," she corrected. "You won't see me causing chaos by draining people's bank accounts."

"An ethical hacker? I didn't know there was such a thing," he told her.

"Of course. We mainly do penetration testing to make sure the bad guys, the black hats, don't get into our clients' computers," she informed him. "They call _us _white hats."

"Awesome, now what about grey hats?" Slade asked somewhat jokingly.

"Yeah, those exist. They're guys who hack into computer systems and then tell the owners of those systems that they got inside before offering to patch up any vulnerabilities. For a price, of course."

"How about blue hats?" Slade asked as they stopped in an alleyway in front of the factory.

"Those don't exist," the blonde replied.

"Pink hats?" the redhead asked with a chuckle.

"Now you're just making things up," Penelope replied, not taking him seriously. "So, here we are."

"Can't we get back to the matters at hand?" Hawkmon asked impatiently.

"Well, that's what we'll do," Slade told the bird. Penelope was looking at her digivice for her partner's signal. "So, where's your partner?"

"Right inside this factory," she replied, walking over to a door and glancing upwards at the cobwebs. "It doesn't look like this place has been used in years." She then tried turning the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked."

Slade thought about it for a second, scrutinizing the door. "Maybe your partner got in from outside. I mean, it's possible that he or she just emerged in there, but maybe there's an entrance."

"It's something we could look for, though I could easily just break the door handle," Hawkmon suggested.

"Not a chance we'll break in and enter," Slade told is partner. "I remember one time when my sister's house got robbed. That wasn't so good."

"You're sister got robbed? Ouch," Penelope replied with a cringe.

"Yeah, they didn't get away with a lot of stuff. My family's pretty persistent when it comes to criminals," the redhead replied. "I'll look over this way with Hawkmon while you look over that way."

"You know, since this is apparently a bad section of town, maybe I should go with Penelope," the bird suggested.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Sorry, I'm just not used to all this," Slade said, looking around. "Let me know if you find anything."

Penelope nodded. Slade continued on while she went the opposite direction with Hawkmon, making their way around the building.

"So, what's it like having Slade as a partner?" she asked the bird as they walked along.

The bird shrugged. "I've only known him for about twelve hours, so I can't give a definite answer to that one. To tell you the truth, I'd rather be back at home, doing research at my old university."

Penelope's eyes widened. "What? They have universities in this digital world or whatever?" she asked, really surprised.

"Well, sure, though in my country, the Avian Duchy, the current dictator decided to close down all universities and ban intellectual pursuits so we can follow his philosophy of creating a fully agrarian society," the digimon replied. "Lately, he's been executing intellectuals left and right."

"That's horrible," the blonde said in astonishment. "I mean, I know of people who prefer to live as farmers even on this planet, but forcing it on others is just way too far. Now, personally, I don't know what I'd do without my computer." The duo came across a door with its door handle blasted off. "This is it."

"Okay, I guess you have to let Slade know that we found the door," Hawkmon told her.

"Uh," she pulled out her cell phone and looked at it. "Do you have his number?"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," the bird replied. "I'll go get him."

"Alright, I'll go get my partner. Don't worry, I'll be careful," she told the digimon as he flew off, opening the door with a bit of a screech. She wondered how long the factory had been abandoned and she shut the door behind her. She instantly reached for a switch, but when she turned it on, nothing happened. "The power's out," she deduced. "How long has this place been abandoned?"

Looking in, the only light was coming from the windows on the second floor. She pulled out her digivice and looked at the location of her partner which was on the other side of the factory. She knew she had to be cautious. After all, most of the characters on horror movies tend to be killed for not being exactly that. The blonde pulled out her cell phone, turned on the flashlight app and held it up, looking for anything.

Just about ten feet from the entrance, though, the walkway that was just above her minutes before collapsed behind her, startling her and blocking her one exit. "Anybody there?" she asked, glaring in the direction of the fallen catwalk. "Okay, think about it. What would anybody in one of those horror movies not do?"

She decided the most sensible maneuver would be to run toward her partner's signal while holding up her phone so she could see where she was going. So far, she didn't find anything until she noticed a small shadow moving around. "Hey, are you alright?" she asked the digimon.

Then she heard something moving around, something big. She turned her phone around and gasped when she came face to face with a giant chicken.

The chicken made an aggressive move toward her but was tackled by the small shadow. Penelope's jaw dropped.

"Leave this girl alone!" the digimon replied in a high-pitched voice, a brown and pink rabbit with three horns on her head. She landed right in front of Penelope.

###

**Particle Accelerator**

"Doctor Barrowman, we're picking something up," one of his interns said. "There seems to be a concentration of negative-mass matter in the factory district, about two miles from the university."

The director gritted his teeth. It was bad enough being at work on a Saturday, but this just had to show up. He walked over to the computer that was displaying the information coming from particle detectors meant for interstellar space but that were being used for this instead. "The inside of a factory?" he asked, looking at the map that was displaying the source of the wormhole. "Okay, who owns it?"

"Nobody," a female intern replied. "The company that owned it went bankrupt about five years ago and it's just lying there vacant. There isn't even power."

"Okay, can you turn the power on, somehow?" he asked the cybersecurity expert, a tall man in his 20s with black hair.

"Not without being given access to the power grid," the white hat hacker responded.

"Figures. How long would it take for a vehicle to get there from here?" Barrowman asked.

"About fifteen minutes according to GPS," one of the other interns replied.

"Great, by the time we get there, whatever it is that's coming from the other side could be rampaging through town. Contact the police and have them patrol the area for any suspicious activity." The man didn't know what was coming, but according to Giorno, they had to keep this as low a profile as possible to prevent panic.

He just hoped that nothing destroyed the city in the meantime.

###

**Factory District**

Hawkmon reached his partner quickly as the redhead was just about to check another door. "You found one," he deduced before frowning. "Don't tell me Penelope went in before you."

"Well, yes, she did, but I didn't sense anything out of the ordinary," the digimon replied, realizing that now there was something malicious inside. "On the other hand, now I most certainly do. We should get going," the bird said and the duo ran around the building with haste, reaching the entrance that Penelope had just gone through moments earlier. Slade pushed the door open only to find out that it only opened partway.

"What the heck? There's something blocking the door!" Slade exclaimed.

"This is bad," Hawkmon replied.

"Let's go to another entrance and break it down," the redhead said, running around the corner to the nearest door that wasn't blocked.

"I thought you said we wouldn't be breaking and entering," the bird responded, fluttering behind his partner.

"Yeah, well it might be a life or death situation," Slade replied before stopping in front of the door. "Hawkmon, destroy the handle."

The bird nodded. "Feather Strike!" he shouted, knocking off the door handle, allowing him and Slade to rush in.

###  
>"What? Hah! You actually expect me to believe you, a simple Rookie, can take on me, a Champion!" the giant chicken exclaimed in mockery at the small rabbit in front of him.<p>

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't go after someone defenseless like this, Akatorimon!" the rabbit shouted before jumping up in the air and shooting out blue flames from her mouth, striking the giant chicken in the gullet. "Blazing Ice!"

"Kaw!" Akatorimon yelled, recoiling from the attack before launching a counter attack of his own, slapping the brown rabbit out of the way and once again turning his sights to Penelope who was no longer where he saw here earlier. Instead, the large, red-feathered chicken felt a metal bar strike him on the arm.

"Take that!" she yelled at the chicken. Then Akatorimon looked at here with a glare and she shrunk back. She didn't want this.

"Scar-Red Eye!"

Penelope avoided it just barely, jumping out of the way and running straight for the large rabbit. "Are you okay?" she asked when she picked the rabbit up.

"I'm alright. It's only a flesh wound," she said, wounded slightly on the side.

"Thanks for helping me," Penelope told the small digimon as she jumped out of the way of another of Akatorimon's attacks.

"No problem. You looked like you could have used a little help," the brown and pink rabbit replied. "The name's Lopmon, by the way."

"Penelope," the blonde answered with a smile as she dodged yet another attack from the massive chicken.

"No mon at the end, huh? You must be one of those humans," the digimon mused.

"Yeah, I definitely am," Penelope said, looking up at Akatorimon. "Why are you doing this, Akatorimon?"

"Squawk! I need something to eat and you look like a tasty morsel! Squawk!" the giant chicken yelled, getting ready to prepare another attack.

"Oh no you don't!" Lopmon shouted, jumping out of Penelope's arms. "Blazing Ice!" The large rabbit shouted, launching another volley of freezing flames on the enemy digimon.

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon yelled, launching a feather at the giant chicken from his head.

"Penelope," Slade said, "use your digivice."

She grabbed the pink device from her pocket and looked at it. "How?"

"Hold it out. Your partner's in danger and so were you," the redhead explained. "It's time for your partner to change its form."

The blonde did so, holding out her digivice just as Lopmon was slapped down to the ground. Immediately, white light shined from the digivice, converging on the brown and pink rabbit. "Lopmon digivolve to…!"

"…Turuiemon!" The new form was a larger purple rabbit wearing a yellow martial arts uniform and a pair of red gloves holding sharp gauntlets. She faced the giant chicken without fear, running forward with her gauntlets ready. "Gauntlet Claw!" she shouted, slicing through the giant chicken's chest, causing it to squawk in pain. When Akatorimon regained his composure, he looked around again.

"Wow, you're a stealthy little rabbit, but that won't help you when I've got your little human friend in my sights!" The digimon made a move toward Penelope and Slade, but then got struck in one of its eyes with a feather.

"Forgetting me?" Hawkmon asked as the feather flew back under his headband.

"Squawk! You've got to be jok-" the giant chicken was cut off mid-sentence by Turuiemon's voice.

"Ninja Strike!" she yelled, attacking him quickly, causing damage throughout his body.

"There you are," he said, glaring at her with his eyes. "Scar-Red Eye!" The attack completely missed Turuiemon as she prepared another strike.

"Gauntlet Claw!" The rabbit sliced into Akatorimon, causing him to disintegrate and then reform as an egg.

"Wow, that's really over," Penelope said.

"Thank you for the boost," Turuiemon replied as she walked over to her partner before reverting back into Lopmon.

"You're welcome. How long have you been here?"

"Since last night. I found myself in the alleyway and I needed shelter so I came in here."

Slade heard something outside. "Sirens, we should get out of here!" he exclaimed. "It'll be good hearing your story later!"

Lopmon nodded, running with the two humans and one other digimon. They made it to their car quickly and were lucky that the cops had tried the front door, which was still stuck. None of them had noticed Prior appearing behind them as they left before grabbing the egg.

###

**Particle Accelerator**

Doctor Barrowman listened to the cops as they spoke to him in his office. "When we arrived, whatever had happened was over. There was someone there just minutes before we arrived, though," the lead cop, a brown-skinned man in his mid-40s, said.

"Anything really strange?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

The other cop, a rather portly white man nodded shakily. "Our forensics department found numerous footprints. Two sets were definitely human, but the other four…"

"Four? You mean there are four of these alien monsters on the loose!" the director exclaimed, saying it without thinking. The two cops looked at each other with confused expressions.

"I'm not sure what you're getting at," the brown-skinned cop said.

"The reason I called you over to that factory was because I detected activity consistent with the formation of a wormhole, a traversable one," the director said. "I didn't mean to blurt it out like that. It's supposed to be kept under wraps."

The portly cop laughed loudly. "Okay, this will be kept between you, us and anyone else you've talked to, though I doubt the general public would believe you anyway. I don't really believe you."

"After all, back in the old Hegemony, humans sent probes over thousands of light-years of space and we didn't find any intelligent life," the brown-skinned cop replied. "I doubt there's anything out there near us."

The Director nodded. "Okay, still, this is under wraps."

"Don't worry, if we find any alien monsters or giant chickens or guys in fur suits, we'll let you know," the portly cop responded. "We'll keep an eye out."

"Giant chickens?" Barrowman asked in confusion.

"Yeah, according to our forensics expert, one set of footprints belonged to what appeared to be a giant chicken." The two laughed at that one. "Still, something suspicious did happen there, so it was a good thing you called us. We also checked the street cameras and there was a distinct gap in surveillance as well, also suspicious. We'll keep our eyes peeled."

The two cops then left the room and Barrowman felt a desire for more scotch, though he was completely out and not in the mood to go into a liquor store. As it was, he didn't want to descend into alcoholism.

So, he got up and walked out of the office, deciding that lifting weights would be a better alternative.

###

Slade walked into his room to find Trevor and his fiancée, sitting on Trevor's bed, watching some show on the black man's tablet. "Wow, I can't believe their actually having a party at their brother's house while he's out of town," the fiancée remarked in a mixture of amazement and astonishment. Slade had to resist rolling his eyes and groaning.

"No kidding. Oh crap, did the door just open. Timothy's home and his sisters are so toast."

_"What's going on?" _a voice asked on the tablet in an upper-class Union City accent. _"Wait, did you two break into my house while I was off skiing and throw a party."_

_ "Oh, come on, Timmy, you would totally do the same thing to us,"_ one of his sisters, a brunette girl who had her skinned altered so that it was far darker than her natural skin color replied.

_"Yeah, Timmy, and you're totally home early. Like, so early," _his other sister added.

Timothy, a rather muscular, brown-haired boy looked around in shock. _"You just trashed my house." _The camera then followed him as he walked over to the window.

"This is the best part," Trevor told his fiancée.

"Ouch, the Giorno sisters should totally get arrested after this," the girl remarked.

_"Wait, are there actually people skinny dipping in my pool? Get everybody out, now!" _Timothy yelled.

"I'm amazed they didn't get arrested," Slade told his roommate, watching the screen with him and shuddering. "Ugh, how the heck do they get away with this?"

"I looked it up online and I guess that Timothy did try to get a restraining order against them but the judge threw it out of court since they paid him off," Trevor remarked. "It's a good thing, too, since I want to see Timothy in more episodes."

"Yeah, he's totally my favorite character," the fiancée said. "I think they should make a spinoff show about him."

"Are you kidding me, Bridget? A spinoff would be totally boring," Trevor objected.

"Dude, he travels a lot. It could be about that," Bridget responded. "Maybe they could have an episode where he travels to Deseret or something. Maybe he could visit Smithtown."

"Are you kidding me? What happens in Deseret should stay there," Trevor remarked.

"Yeah, and they don't even have access to the 'net there," Slade replied. "I hear they have good skiing in the northern parts. At the same time, I hear it's swarming with carnivorous fombras."

"Yuck! I hate fombras," the black man declared with a look of disgust. "I don't know why those things became such popular pets all over the Hegemony back in the day. They're like… I don't know."

"Walking rugs. I guess they have a lot in common with stingrays, only they're hairy," Slade said with a shrug. "I had one as a kid. The herbivorous variant isn't too bad as long as you clean up after them."

"Yeah, but all the ones I've come across were carnivores," Trevor replied.

"So, how was your day with that cute secretary?" Bridget asked with a smile.

Slade shrugged again. "Pretty fun. We went around town, saw the factory district."

"Yeah, there's nothing there," Trevor said, deadpan.

"There really wasn't. Then we went and ate lunch and I worked out and now I'm here."

"Sounds like a more interesting day than mine," Bridget said with a smile before turning to her fiancé. "So, Trevor, what are you going to say to Slade?"

The black man looked at his fiancée with shock, realizing she remembered. "Uh, oh yeah, I'm sorry, Slade, for my outburst earlier."

Slade nodded. "I'm sorry about how I acted too."

"Believe me, I shouldn't have chewed you out for not being dressed when we arrived unexpectedly," Trevor told him.

"There, that wasn't too bad, wasn't it?" Bridget asked her fiancée.

"No, not really," Trevor agreed.

"So, what's your major, uh, Slater, right?"

"Slade, uh, Computer Science. I'm aiming for a bachelors but I'm hoping to move on to a masters or even a doctorates," he told her. "You?"

"Business management," Bridget responded. "Yeah, I know, boring! Yours sounds kind of cool, though."

"How about you, Trevor?" Slade asked with a smile, glad that they got at least some of the drama behind them. He knew, however, that there was still a chance of further disagreements, so he decided to tread carefully.

"Nursing. Yeah, I know, girly, but I've never been much of a masculine guy anyway," Trevor answered. "I just want to help people."

"Awesome," Slade replied. "I guess that's something we have in common. So do I."

Trevor ginned back. "So, you want to watch Growing up Giorno?"

Slade laughed. "Not a chance."

###


	3. The Semester Begins

Chapter 3: The Semester Begins

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the characters in this story.

###

The car stopped in a parking lot and Slade, Penelope and their partners got out. "I have to say, this is a pretty good idea," the blonde girl commented.

"I kind of figured that we'd do something to make up for having the digimon to stay cooped up in your apartment during the week while we're at school," Slade remarked, his hands in his pocket.

"This park is quite large, I'll say," Hawkmon remarked, looking at it. It was an inner-city park, surrounded largely by skyscrapers, but there were still the mountains on the other side of some of the immense buildings. "I don't remember the city I lived in having parks this big."

"Union City did, but its founders wanted as much greenery as possible," Slade informed his partner. "This place is pretty lucky to have a large park like this in the middle, though, especially considering who founded it."

"If you call any of them criminals…" Penelope warned without finishing.

Slade smiled at her. "Don't worry; it was just founded by a bunch of separatists who celebrated when the Hegemony stopped sending this planet transmissions. Then again, a lot of those separatists were sent here because of Hegemony law basically turning all colony planets into what Australia was for the British: a giant penal colony."

"That's pretty interesting. How did that work?" Hawkmon asked.

"Well," Penelope started, "when someone would commit a crime on Old Earth such as say, armed robbery, conspiracy or being a homeless person, they would be sent to their province's colony world with a bag of seed and a deed to some land."

"Hey, the crime wasn't being a homeless person," Slade objected.

"Um, according to the textbooks I read it was," Penelope responded.

"From the records on Hegemony law I read back home, homeless people were generally talked to by the police. If they were homeless because they lost their job and they were still searching for one, they were generally given government housing. Now, if they were just being plain lazy, on the other hand, then they were taken to the colonies."

"What about the mentally ill?" Penelope asked.

"That's why the Hegemony had mental hospitals. According to everything I've read about the period, they were all pretty state of the art too," Slade answered.

"Of course that's what you'd say. You're from Union City, which was founded by pro-Hegemony Americans and they probably see the Hegemony as some sort of utopia," she replied. "Wait, if you're from Union City, where's your accent? You sound like you were born in the Victory City suburbs."

Slade smirked. "I'm good at voice imitation. You should see me speak Deseret. It comes with having a bit of an eidetic memory."

Penelope nodded. "That could come in handy."

Slade nodded nervously. "It does. By the way, I don't think that the Hegemony was a utopia. They still had problems like how they had a tendency to conquer everyone that decided to declare war on them, the US included." He shook his head. "They were definitely focused on world domination, that's for sure. Not to mention all the mind-control technology. They say it was only allowed if it was self-administered, but I have to question that part."

"Well, at least you're not _completely _blind to its flaws," Penelope said with a smile as they walked.

"So, changing the subject, even though it's only been a day, how are you handling feeding your partner?" Slade asked.

"She's feeding me lots," Lopmon answered for her.

Penelope thought about it. She was definitely concerned about how to make ends meet. "That's because you eat lots. Well, I'm trying to figure that one out. You see, I'm working as a receptionist in our dorm building for about twenty hours a week right now and I'm not sure if that's going to be enough even with my meal plan since its minimum wage."

"Yeah, same here. I'm thinking I might have to actually get a job," the redhead told her.

"You're 20, right? Haven't you ever had a job?" the blonde asked, confused.

Slade shook his head.

"And what about that giant wad of hundreds you're hiding underneath your mattress?" Hawkmon asked.

Slade automatically covered his partner's mouth up. "That's supposed to be a secret!"

"Oh, wow, so you're secretly rich and you cashed your trust fund," Penelope deduced. "Don't tell me, since I've never heard of a family named the Bennetts, that means you must be a Payne. You're totally a Payne." Slade shook his head. "Okay, you're a Gates." Again, he shook his head. "How about a Workman. Some of them have red hair and pale skin." Slade had enough.

"Can you please stop trying to guess," he requested.

"Oh, okay, sure. Slade Workman," Penelope teased.

Then she heard her phone ring with an embarrassing pop ringtone and pulled it out. "Oh, it's the head of the IT department. I have to take this."

"Go ahead," the redhead told her and she walked a few meters and started talking on her phone.

"What was that about? What's with humans and portable phones?" Lopmon asked.

"It was a department head calling so it's probably something important," Slade answered the digimon.

"Still, it seems like you can't live without your electronic devices," Hawkmon observed.

"They're just tools. You had that bag with you when I took you in, remember?" Slade responded before looking around. He saw a blond man walking around with long hair and immediately thought of Prior. The man seemed to be enjoying the Sunday air as well. _Could that be him? _He asked himself. Of course, the man wasn't wearing the mask or the ridiculous tuxedo. He was sniffing a rose along with some other flowers, including some local ones with spiral stems.

"I wonder if Prior has a digimon partner," Slade just said.

"Yes, that man down the hill does look a little bit like him," Hawkmon observed, getting an idea of what Slade was getting at. "He probably does."

"Then that means the man's probably not him," Slade remarked, turning away from the blond man. "He spoke with a weird accent too, so Lincoln's probably not his native language."

"I do get the feeling that he's from another world so that would make sense. Your having different languages seems quite peculiar, I have to say," Hawkmon said.

"Yeah, it is, but the way it happens is that when one group gets isolated or interacts with another group, they tend to adopt things from the other group or change. Lincoln's been in isolation for about two hundred years so its language is a bit different than, for instance, Late English as spoken in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Even twenty-second century Late English as spoken in the United States had diverged a bit from how it was spoken in the United Kingdom or Australia."

"Interesting. What changed from English?" Hawkmon asked.

"Well, for starters, the grammar is a _lot _simpler in some ways, though that's changing a bit since there are all these prefixes that weren't in twenty-first century English but were separate words instead. Not to mention, during the twenty-first century, they had this writing system that just gives me a headache just looking at it since it was codified by Shakespeare more or less and hadn't changed very much until the twenty-second century when the Hegemony invaded."

"I can't imagine. In the digital world, it's a lot different. I could understand everyone I met perfectly."

"I bet," Slade remarked. "That would be pretty cool."

"So, how do you know all this boring stuff, anyway?" Lopmon asked almost mockingly.

Slade decided to humor her with a smile. "I read a lot. Plus, there's that whole eidetic memory thing. It helps with remembering facts and stuff."

At about that point, Penelope came back to where Slade and the two digimon were, ecstatic. "Hey, guess what?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah, what's going on? You look like you've just won a million bucks," Slade joked, returning the smile.

"Well, I guess I just got a job interview. I guess they're keeping it under wraps but a company wants to hire a student part-time to perform penetration testing," she told him. "So, this means I won't be a receptionist for much longer."

"That's great," Slade replied, genuinely happy for her. "So, I guess that means we'll have to save hanging out at the park for another day."

"Yeah, I guess so," Penelope remarked with a frown. "Well, I guess there's always next time. So, I guess we should go back."

Slade smiled. "Yeah."

###

When Penelope arrived at the IT department office for her interview a little over an hour later, she found the department head, a tall, brown-haired man with round glasses. Next to him was someone unfamiliar, though she had seen him around campus. "Good afternoon, Ms. Vaughn, this is Doctor Barrowman, professor of Physics."

The heavyset man smiled. "Yep, that would be me. I'm sure you've heard about how the particle accelerator had been sabotaged?"

"Uh, yeah, that really sucks. And here I thought you were well on your way to rediscovering a number of exotic particles," Penelope replied, sitting in her chair. "All those protesters are really up to no good, aren't they?"

"No kidding. We're still trying to figure out who exactly did it and how, as well. That's where you come in," Doctor Barrowman replied, getting up and looking through the blinds. "I hear you're one of the best students in your class. What would you think of working part time for me doing penetration testing at the Victory City Particle Accelerator? The pay will be good."

"So, why don't you hire someone already established in the field?" Penelope asked the big man.

"Because I don't know who to trust. You have a flawless track record and there's nothing saying that you could have possibly hijacked the particle accelerator. For one thing, what do you know about creation of exotic particles?"

Penelope scratched her head for a second, trying to think. She took an introductory physics course as a part of her natural sciences general education requirements but didn't remember much other than protons and neutrons. "I have no idea."

"Neither did I until a few days ago. Well, I didn't know how to create this specific subset, anyway," he told her. "So, are you on?"

Penelope nodded, not knowing much about what the professor was talking about.

###

The next day, classes started. Of course, to get to class, Slade had to first wake up, which he did at about 8:00 am. His roommate had already woken up and was spending too much time in the bathroom preparing for a 9:00 class, so Slade simply changed into his clothes, planning on showering during one of his numerous breaks.

His first class was Beginning Programming: Boa at 10:00, so he simply went straight to the cafeteria. As he did that, he wondered what Hawkmon was doing in Penelope's bedroom and hoped that the bird wasn't bored or anything. Thankfully, Slade had left Hawkmon some food the night before, so he wouldn't have to sneak him around in his bag again. He ate into his Danish before digging into some scrambled eggs.

After that, he went straight for class and waited outside. "What's going on?" he asked one of the other students, a bespectacled guy with light brown skin and black hair. He was also sporting a goatee and had a flat cap on his head.

"There's a class already in there. I guess they're teaching a video game design class before this one," he responded.

"Oh, okay, good to know. The name's Slade Bennett, by the way."

"Demetri Gonzales," the black-haired man replied. "Freshman?"

"Yeah, you?"  
>"Just graduated from a local high school this last May," he replied. "This is going to be kind of cool. How about you?"<p>

"I graduated about two years ago. I just kind of figured I'd go back to school since I didn't want to just live my life living off my dad," the redhead answered.

"That's cool. What high school did you go to?" Demetri asked.

"Union City Academy," Slade replied with some nervousness.

"Huh, you don't sound like you're from Union City," the darker-toned man replied, though Slade didn't answer that one. It was at about that time that the two of them noticed the previous class coming out. "Well, I guess it's time to go in."

Slade followed him and the two of them sat in the front. The room was a large computer lab and the computers in front of them were on their login screens. Slade decided to pull out his notebook and pen while Demetri simply took out a laptop and brought it out of hibernation. "So, what kind of computer is that?"

"An Oasis g7. My parents just got it for me as a graduation present," Demetri answered.

"Awesome, I just have a tablet in my backpack that I bought on Saturday become coming here," Slade responded. "A Universe Tab 5."

"Those just came out. Personally, I'd rather wait until they're a year old before buying them, but whatever floats your boat. Of course, you're probably financially well-off, so it shouldn't matter too much. As for me, I'm here on a scholarship."

"You have no idea," Slade replied, not wanting to talk about his family.

"Well, at least you're not one of the Families. Those guys seem like a bunch of idle rich to me. Seems like a waste of potential if you ask me."

Slade nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I definitely agree with that one. It bugs the crap out of me. Almost all of them seem to do nothing when they could be making the world a better place."

"Yeah, especially the Giorno Sisters and their stupid reality show. I think their brother's got the potential to be better, but for all I know, he'll end up like them. All they seem to be focused on is just keeping themselves rich." Demetri leaned in and whispered. "You didn't hear this from me, but I hear they have rejuvenation tech from the old Hegemony that they keep all to themselves and they won't share it with the rest of the planet."

Slade looked a bit shocked that his new acquaintance knew that. "That's pretty dangerous to know, if it's true."

"Yeah, it is, unless somehow Garrett Giorno's got a new clone body he's running around in. I've seen pictures on the net and I follow Conspiracy Watch. Rumor also has it that Byzantium won't make contact with us because the Families told them not to and that they're a part of a new interstellar coalition."

Now _that _was way out of left field. He hadn't heard anything about that though a part of him wants to go into space and see what the planet Byzantium is like. Unfortunately, to do that, he'd need a starship and, unless one of the Families had one hidden somewhere, it wasn't likely he'd find one.

Slade simply sat back, waiting for the class to start. He glanced to his right and noticed that one the other side of him was the heavyset guy he saw typing on his computer in the cafeteria a couple days before. At that moment, he was typing on his computer some more. Slade glanced at the brown-haired guy's computer screen out of curiosity and noticed that he was typing a program in the Boa programming language that looked quite complex. "No way, you already know the material?"

The heavy guy stopped in his tracks. The only reason Slade had noticed him the day before was because he had reminded him of an old friend, but at that moment the heavy guy seemed downright embarrassed.

"Uh, yeah," he responded in a baritone, nervous beyond belief.

Slade smiled. "That's awesome. I actually took a Boa programming class all the way back in Elementary School but it was mostly the basics. I do remember most of it though. What is it?"

The heavy guy stuttered a bit but before he could answer, the professor, a mildly overweight man in his early forties with blond hair and a beard entered. "Good morning class and welcome to Computer Science 101, Beginner's Programming: Boa."

###

After that class, Slade didn't get a chance to talk to the heavyset guy he sat next to, although he talked to Demetri for a few minutes since they were heading for the same building for their next class, though they didn't have the same class. Demetri was going to his Astrography class while Slade had Composition 111. For Slade, Astrography was an hour-and-a-half long class he had on Tuesdays and Thursdays so he didn't have to worry about that one until the next day.

Upon arriving in that class, Slade caught sight of Trevor reading something on his tablet. "So, you have Professor Walker for this class too, huh?" he asked as he sat down next to his roommate.

"Wait, what? I didn't know we had this class together! Oh man!" Trevor responded, obviously not liking that he was stuck with his roommate for one of his classes. They still didn't completely get along though Slade tried his best.

"Hey, it could be worse. Personally, I find these general education courses to be kind of pointless," Slade told his roommate.

"Well, duh, they're just so we can pay more money to the school," the skinny black man responded. "Have you ever, like, considered how many pointless renovations they make to this school each year? I swear, instead of simply remodeling, they just demolish buildings and make new ones."

"That… wouldn't surprise me. So, how are your classes going?" Slade asked out of curiosity.

"Well, my Anatomy and Physiology class was just swell," Trevor responded. "I just wish the textbook didn't contain so many disgusting pictures."

"Well, you did decide to go into nursing," the redhead reminded him. "Just think of how things will turn out when you have to deal with that stuff on a constant basis as an RN."

"Yeah, I guess. Then again, maybe I'll just get used to everything. If not, then I'll just change majors."

"That's the spirit!" Slade exclaimed with a smile.

The professor, a man with a circle beard and a receding brown hairline, walked in.

Trevor nodded. He still wasn't happy about having his roommate in one of his classes with him, but at least they could have a few civilized conversations from time to time.

"Well, class, welcome to Composition 111. I am Professor Walker and I'm going to be teaching this class for the semester," the man told the class. "Now, I would like you all to arrange the desks in a circle while I sit on this stool." He smiled and everyone did as told. "Alright, it's time for you to get your syllabi." The balding man walked over to one corner of the room and passed a pile of papers to the girl who was sitting there who, after talking a paper of her own, passed the papers onward. "First things first, you might want to get the two books we'll be reading this semester. First, there's 'My Immortal', a rather horrific piece of drivel written in the early twenty-first century based on a work that is now lost that is apparently about a vampire going to wizard school. I'd prefer you use the 2510 translation and I definitely wouldn't recommend reading the original if you can read Late English. Then there's 'The Journey', another piece of fiction of much higher caliber than the first story…"

The class was surprisingly informal and quickly devolved into a discussion of style.

###

After his second class, it was already lunch time and Slade wasn't about to let another minute pass with his partner cooped up in Penelope's room, so he made his way up the dorm building to the girl's room, covertly checking the room number on his phone. He needed to find a way to take his partner on the town without drawing attention to him, so he, in case there was a way, checked his digivice's features for anything that could possibly facilitate in carrying his partner around.

He found it just before passing Penelope's dorm room. Realizing his mistake, he backtracked a couple of feet and knocked on the door. Lopmon answered, much to Slade's annoyance.

"Hey, what's up, doc?" the three-horned rabbit greeted.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Hawkmon exclaimed from behind Lopmon as he fluttered over the rabbit and landed in front of his partner.

"Hey, buddy. Guess what?" Slade asked him.

"What? I'm not quite sure what you're getting at," the digimon responded, scratching just below his beak.

"I have a way of moving you around without weirding people out with a talking bird," Slade answered, showing Hawkmon an app on his digivice. The app was apparently a way of taking digimon into the digivice temporarily.

"Hmm… Interesting. So, you think you can take me to class using this?" Hawkmon asked, scratching just below his beak.

"Why would you want to go to class?" Lopmon asked disparagingly, though Slade ignored him.

"Yeah, maybe. We'll have to test it out, but it should do something like that," the redhead answered. "You want to try it out?"

"Sure, that's perfectly acceptable. It's utterly boring staying in here all day," the bird answered.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Slade said, pressing the button on the touch screen. Suddenly, Hawkmon glowed blue before turning into blue light and going straight into the digivice.

"Okay, that was more than a little freaky. You didn't accidently kill him, did you?" Lopmon asked, half-jokingly, earning a dirty look from Slade. "What?"

"So, is everything okay?" the redhead asked, ignoring the rabbit.

"So far so good,"Hawkmon answered from the digivice. The digimon was on the screen, relaxing in what looked like a comfortable room full of red furniture and green painted walls, though he looked like a cartoon with thick lines instead of his usual self.

"Alright, I'll need to find the volume button for taking you to class," Slade told the digimon. "I don't want you to accidently startle my classmates."

"I understand. This is quite the expansive room, I have to say. I wonder how this is possible." The bird looked around and examined everything.

"Beats me," Slade remarked. "The old Hegemony was filled with all sorts of weird technology."

"Like what?"

"Holograms, wormholes, rejuvenation," the redhead answered. "I guess I can take you to the cafeteria."

"Good, because I'm famished," Hawkmon responded.

"Hey, what about me?" Lopmon asked, staring at Slade.

"Uh, Penelope should be here soon. Don't worry, I'll tell her how to put you in a digivice the next time I see here," Slade told the small digimon.

"You better," the rabbit said. "See you around!"

###  
>Slade made it to the cafeteria just in time since the line suddenly got very long right after he got in. As it was, he still had to wait several minutes before getting through. Once he got his drinks and put them on his tray, he noticed someone waving at him. He instantly recognized him as Demetri and figured that he'd go and sit across from the guy, though he still needed to figure out how to feed his digimon without anybody noticing.<p>

"What's up, Slater?" Demetri greeted, mangling Slade's name.

"Not much. It's Slade, by the way," the redhead said in reply, putting his tray on the table.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm not real good with names," the black-haired man responded. "So, how have the rest of your classes gone so far?"

"Pretty good," Slade answered before biting into his hamburger. After chewing and swallowing, he continued. "I just have three more classes and I'm done for the day. Let's see, I have Physics 101 next hour with Dr. Barrowman and then I have Health and Wellness, though that's mostly online anyway. After that's Calculus."

Demetri smiled at that one. "Oh, yeah, that's a really easy class, just be sure to do that project that you have to turn in at the end. A friend of mine didn't do that and he ended up with a D when he would have gotten an A otherwise." Then he thought for a second. "Wait, you have Physics with Barrowman. I hear he's pretty difficult, though that might just be my friend. He _was _kind of lazy."

"I'll keep that in mind," Slade replied after swallowing another bite.

###

When he arrived at his physics class, he saw the heavyset guy sitting toward the front just like in Beginning Programming, so, he thought he'd go over and sit down next to him again. The brown-haired guy was busy on his tablet, going through his program and debugging every little bug that he encountered. Slade wasn't looking forward to that part of programming.

"So, what kind of program is that supposed to be, anyway?" Slade asked him, getting a somewhat worried look from him. He swallowed before talking.

"Uh, it's a database I'm making for my dad's work. Just… information on the kinds of jobs we've got," the heavyset guy responded.

Slade smiled. "Cool, on-the-job experience before the rest of us. How long have you been programming?"

The guy froze up slightly, took a deep breath and answered again. "A few years. I… uh… dabbled with it back in high school and… now I'm here. I don't… uh… like my job very much."

"Ah," Slade said with understanding. "At least you have one. I've been eyeballing a janitorial position here at the college or something. Just enough to get it so that I'm not relying only on some money I've got saved up and student loans."

The guy nodded, clearly uncomfortable. Slade thought he'd just let the conversation go after that since he didn't want to accidentally get on the heavyset guy's bad side. Still, there was one thing Slade needed to ask. Unfortunately, before he got to ask for the brown-haired guy's name, he heard someone talk to him from across the room.

"Slade? You have a class with me?" he looked over and saw Bridget walk in, smiling, before walking over and sitting down next to the redhead. "How's your first day?"

"Pretty good. How's yours?" Slade asked her. He glanced over at the brown-haired guy to see him blush slightly at the girl showing up.

"Great! All my classes were pretty cool and I think I like all my professors, so everything's going great," she said in response. "So, I hear you have Trevor in English."

"Yeah, he's second-guessing his major, but he seems to be doing alright other than that," Slade answered.

"Oh yeah, he doesn't like some of the things he has to deal with. I keep on telling him he should be a dental assistant instead, but he just won't listen," Bridget told Slade with a laugh. "As for me, I already feel like I'm on the fast track to being an entrepreneur!"

"That's pretty awesome. Give those Families a run for their money," Slade joked.

"Right!"

The next thing Slade knew, the professor was walking in with a shoulder bag, a man in his late 50s with grey hair and a short-trimmed beard. "Good morning, I'm Professor Lyle Barrowman," he told everyone with a smile. "Now, class, you should have your syllabus since I emailed you all last night."

Slade was glad he had his tablet out at that moment and so he instantly went over to the email app, opening up his university email account. Sure enough, there was a file from Lyle Barrowman. Slade instantly cursed himself for not checking his university email more often, especially since it had been since toward the beginning of the summer that he had checked it, just after registering. He downloaded the file and looked it over.

"Okay, class, now, for introductions. I believe in having a close, personal relationship with my students as much as possible, so I'll go first. My name is Lyle Barrowman. I have doctorates in Physics with a minor in Chemistry and I'm an assistant professor here at Victory City University. Also, I'm the director at the Victory City Particle Accelerator, so I shoot a bunch of stuff at each other and create other stuff with it." The professor chuckled and so did the rest of the class. "Alas, the accelerator got sabotaged the other night by an unknown party, but we'll hopefully be back on track in a couple of weeks. So, I guess it's your turn, guys. Tell me your name, major and one interesting fact about you."

Slade instantly froze up at that one. He didn't know a good fact about himself, at least anything that he could let anybody else know. _Let's see, hmm…_

"My name is Bridget O'Hara and I'm a Business major. I like to write stories about the Star Federation series, even though it's been off the air for, like, ten years," Bridget told the professor before Slade knew it.

"Awesome, what kind of stories do you write about the show?" Lyle Barrowman asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, romance, romance and more romance. You should read my fanfic pairing Captain Powell and Lola Lenard."

"Hah! I always paired him with his first officer, Angela Bombardi," Barrowman admitted with a bit of a laugh. "Okay, now, for the next guy."

Slade froze when he realized it was his turn. _How the heck did it get to me so fast? _He asked himself. "Uh, I'm Slade Bennett, a Computer Science major and one interesting fact about me is that… I'm Bridget's fiancé's roommate. I guess…" He grimaced.

"Oh, okay. Anything else?" the professor asked, unimpressed but trying his best not to show it. It looked more like he was gritting his teeth than anything while compensating with his eyebrows up to where they would be if he was enthusiastic about what Slade had just said.

"Uh, I'm from Union City," he added.

"Oh, you're good at hiding your accent. Funny. I would have never guessed," the professor said enthusiastically. "Now, for the next guy."

For some reason, out of nervousness and the fact that the next guy had a rather different name, Slade didn't pay attention as he spoke, something he didn't realize until partway through the guy's interesting fact. "… and I work for the family business which is pest control."

"Oh, wow, that's got to be an interesting and dangerous job. Ever have to deal with any of the nastier examples of local wildlife?" the professor asked.

"Sometimes, but the worst tends to be… uh… the invasive species from off-world. Rats for instance or those carnivorous fombras from Tierra Segunda. Then there are wild dogs." Slade thought he was starting to sound slightly more self-assured than before. Still, he couldn't believe he missed the guy's name.

"Ouch, carnivorous fombras. I ran into one of those one time when I was a kid. Almost ripped my face off," Doctor Barrowman remarked, grimacing a little bit right afterwards. "Alright, next!"

###

The class ended pretty quickly for Slade, though it was mostly him listening to what they were going over that semester: everything ranging from complex equations to exotic particles. At the same time, Slade was looking forward to all that. On the way out, Bridget tapped on his shoulder.

"Please tell me that there's something more interesting about you than being my fiancé's roommate," she told him as they walked along.

"I guess I could have said something else," he replied. "There's a lot I don't want to share with people, though."

"Hmm… Yeah? Afraid you'd get killed for doing that?" she asked.

Slade nodded. "Pretty much. I probably would," he said, really not wanting to elaborate further.

Bridget thought about it for a second. "What did you do? Get the wrath of the Families to come against you?"

Slade stopped in his paths. "I… They tried to kill me, but not because of something I did. They…" He was beginning to clench his fists. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh," Bridget replied. "Okay, don't worry. I understand. You're probably here hiding from them or something."

Slade nodded. "Yeah, exactly. It's why I got away from Union City. They… they… Ah, forget it. I can't say anything about it."

"Hey, listen, if you need someone to talk to, feel free to talk to me about it," Bridget promised. "Even if you did something really stupid."

"I didn't do anything, really. Let's just leave it at that," he told her.

"Okay, well I've got to get to class, so see you around," she replied before walking off.

"Yeah, see you whenever," Slade responded before turning around and heading straight for his Health and Wellness class.

###

For the rest of the day, Slade didn't run into anyone he knew in any of his classes, so he felt kind of bored. He looked over his syllabi, half of which were online, and was thankful that the only homework he had was a reading that he had to get done by Wednesday for his Physics class as well as a Calculus assignment.

"So, how'd your first day go?" Hawkmon asked, pacing around the inside of the digivice impatiently as Slade walked across campus.

"Alright. I think I'll just get through my class work and then eat. You?"

"I really need to bring a book in here with me next time. Please tell me you can do that," the bird requested.

"We could try it." Then Slade's phone started ringing. He could have sworn he had it on vibrate but he took it out anyway. Prior was on the other line.

"Good afternoon, Slade," the mysterious man greeted.

"Prior? So, you decided to call me. Any way you're going to tell me how I'm going to change the world for the better?" The redhead glanced at the number momentarily, noting that it was from a payphone. He didn't even know they had payphones anymore.

"In due time, but for right now, I'll tell you that your next teammate has been selected based on his display of virtue and his potential for more. To meet Alastair Harrison, go to the Happy Hills Amusement Park at the corner of Kipling and Wellington."

With that, Prior hung up, irritating Slade in the process. "Seriously, why doesn't this guy just tell me what he's up to?"

"You know, that is a good question," the bird replied. "To be honest, I don't blame you for wanting to know what he's up to. He hasn't been particularly forthcoming, has he?"

"No, definitely not," Slade answered, looking up the corner of Kipling and Wellington for an amusement park and not finding any. "Okay, I guess we should go check this out. It'll be good having another teammate. I wonder who this Alastair chick is."

"Isn't that a man's name?" Hawkmon asked.

"How would you know? To be honest, I don't know anybody named that so you could be right," Slade replied. He knew exactly what he was going to do, namely drop off his stuff in his room and get on his motorcycle. On the way to his dorm, he decided to search for Alastair Harrison and got a web page for a pest control company that was apparently designed by him. He couldn't find anything else other than that, though.

So, he ran, hoping that they both knew what they were getting into, both him and the other guy.

###


	4. Alastair Harrison

Chapter 4: Alastair Harrison

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the OCs found within.

###

The one big disadvantage to going to the gym in a larger university would have to be the amount of traffic. At a smaller university, the number of people in the locker room at the same time tends to be one or two or sometimes none. At Victory City University, on the other hand, there tend to be at least several people there getting dressed at the same time, though the tradeoff is that the locker room is quite a bit bigger than at a smaller college.

Of course, Alastair didn't go to any other school in his six years since graduating from High School, so he just had the gym he went to before to compare it to. It was busier, somehow. Still, he would sit down, face the locker, and change. The first thing he did was take off his shoes so he could change his pants. Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to unbuckle his belt, his phone went off, causing him to scramble and grab it from his large, red duffle bag. He pressed the green button on the touchscreen after seeing that it was his father.

"Hi, dad, how's it going?" he asked, looking forward and into his locker.

_"Good afternoon. I guess I have a couple of jobs for you to do. The first is Ms. Weasley who has another bug problem in her backyard…"_

"Ms. Weasley? Her again?" Alastair asked, dumbfounded that she would request him yet again after what had happened the last time.

_"Yeah, she wanted you, personally, to deal with your pest problem. Is something wrong?"_ Alastair's father asked, concerned.

"Uh, yeah, I think she… wants me, you know?" Alastair responded, his eyes shifting. "I really don't trust that lady."

_"She wants you? What?"_

"The last time I was there, she made me really uncomfortable. I sprayed for bugs in her basement and then came upstairs only to find her wearing a bathrobe. In the middle of the day. She invited me to sit down and have some coffee and then undid her bathrobe."

_"Oh…, did you say no?"_ his father asked, concerned and terrified at what the answer was.

"Yes, I told her I wasn't interested. Then she put her hand on my leg, so I ran out the door with the check which she so conveniently left on the table." Alastair shuddered at the memory. "Yeah, that didn't go over so well, so you can tell why I don't want to go back to her, at least alone."

_"Okay, I'll go and I'll take your mother with me as company in case she tries something_," his father replied.

"Alright, dad, that's great. So, what was the other job?" Alastair asked, reaching for his socks from the locker in front of him.

_"Well, a rich investor, one of the Giorno family no doubt, wanted you to clear an amusement park of fombras,"_ his father explained, reading off the list._ "I'm not sure why he asked for you specifically, but he did."_

"A Giorno? Which one?" Alastair inquired in confusion, putting his phone between his shoulder and head and freeing his hand to put on one of his socks.

_"Timothy, apparently. I didn't even know he was in town, but apparently he is and he wants to spend part of his trust fund fixing up an old amusement park. I don't even know how long it's been closed."_

"Awesome. I guess I'll come by the house to pick up some fombra traps and then I'll get over there," Alastair responded. "See you later, dad."

_"Alright. Did you have a good first day, at least?"_ his dad asked.

"Yeah. I saw this girl I thought was kind of cute but she had a diamond engagement ring on. Oh well. There was also some redhead that was trying to make small talk with me about my project for you. He kind of put me on edge for some reason."

_"Maybe he's just being friendly,"_ his father suggested. _"You can't keep on reading motives into everyone. You have to have faith in them more."_

"Yeah, maybe. It's just that there was just something off about him, I guess. Like he was hiding something. I don't know what. Maybe I'll find out later." Alastair finished putting on his shoes and then zipped up his duffle bag. "Well, see you around, dad. I better get going."

_"Alright, see you when you get home later,"_ his father said in goodbye and Alastair pressed the red button on his phone's screen, hanging it up. He then made his way out of the locker room and out of the rec center, toward his truck which was actually on the other side of the campus closer to the majority of his classes. He walked over to the old, blue pick-up and opened it up, plopping his bag on top of his backpack, sitting down, shutting the door and buckling his seatbelt. Then he pulled his phone out and connected it to the car's speaker via Bluetooth, putting on a satellite station playing music that would be best described as an alternative rock track that used mainly violins and cellos instead of a guitar with a female vocalist singing operatically.

It was at about that point that Alastair noticed the device on his dashboard just in front of his speedometer, a red smartphone-like gadget with yellow buttons. This confused him, since there hadn't been anybody else in his car for months, just him. He just pocketed the device, deciding to find out who it belonged to later. Right now he had a job to do.

"Okay, Car, go to 12732 South Kipling," he ordered his car's self-driving apparatus, causing it to pull out of the parking space he was in and drive. He was glad he invested in such a device, even though he could drive. It helped him out when he didn't feel like driving. So, while it was taking him to the amusement park, he started getting some readings done for his General History class.

###

When Slade arrived at the old amusement park, he found that it was definitely in a state of disrepair. He didn't even have to climb a fence to get in since the entrance was so rusted and just entered. What he saw inside wasn't much better. Many weeds, local and transplanted, were covering the various rides, some of which looked on the verge of collapse. One, a Ferris wheel had actually toppled over. Slade wondered why nobody had torn the place down and built something new in its place. Heck, even if they simply replaced it with yet another housing development it would be better than this.

He pulled out his digivice and let Hawkmon out. "Oh my, what is this place?" the bird asked, covering his beak in astonishment.

"An amusement park that's been abandoned for thirty years," the redhead answered. "Makes me wish I could do some investing or something. I'm sure that if I asked for the money, I could get it."

"You humans actually let this happen?" Hawkmon inquired, surprised.

"It's not like we could actually prevent it. There was an economic downturn a number of years ago and it's things like that that cause this," Slade answered. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and flinched. "Did you see that?"

"I see nothing but examples of urban decay," the bird answered. "That's kind of funny. From the looks of it, we're quite a ways away from the city center."

Slade grabbed his digivice instinctively and then turned in another direction as soon as he saw movement coming from there. They were standing next to the fallen Ferris wheel. "Anybody out there?" he called out.

"What are you expecting? Squatters?" Hawkmon asked, somewhat jokingly.

"That would be the least of my worries. Now, if only I had that one fat guy around. He's an exterminator. Also reminds me of my friend Travis for some reason." Slade gritted his teeth. "They both had curly hair."

"Had?"

Something came out of the house of mirrors. Slade glanced over there but didn't see what it was. Then he realized he wasn't looking for the right thing. Something was hiding in the shadows, something furry. He looked around again and saw other furry… things on the ground, some of which were flattened against it, others moving in strange ways.

"Hawkmon, get ready to attack," Slade ordered.

"Attack? What? I don't see any other digimon around here," the bird objected.

"Not digimon, fombras. Tons of them. We're surrounded."

"Are you sure?"

"For crying out loud! They're an invasive species! Like rabbits in New Zealand."

"New Zealand? I'm afraid I don't know where that is. Is that another one of those planets you've been telling me about?"

It was at about that time that the duo noticed someone running around screaming, chased by more fombras. "Oh, crap, somebody else is here? I hope it's not that Alastair chick."

It wasn't. Instead, it was a large, red bug that was flying away from a number of fombras which were jumping quite high up in the air. Hawkmon just rolled his eyes and grabbed his feather. "Feather Strike!" he yelled, throwing his feather at some of the fombras and striking a number of them in a row, killing them. Hawkmon was more than a bit grossed out by the sight. "That is just plain disgusting! What is that green stuff coming out of them? At least digimon don't do _that_ when they're deleted."

"That's blood. Theirs is copper-based if I remember right," Slade answered the digimon, shuddering at the thought. In reality, the entire thing grossed him out as much as his digimon.

Still, the fombras kept on coming, though at least the giant ladybug, or whatever the new digimon was, was starting to fight back with an electrical attack. While Hawkmon kept on striking with his feather strike attack, Slade looked on his digivice for a way of identify the digimon or at least find a way to fight back on his own, but only found the former. Immediately he brought up data on the giant beetle.

**Tentomon, Insect Digimon, Vaccine Attribute. Attacks: Super Shocker, Talon.**

"Tentomon? He doesn't look like a tent," Slade remarked. Unfortunately, he was caught guard when a fombra jumped onto him, bearing its teeth. The alien animal was spineless and had four bony limbs connected to a central jaw structure toward the front, giving it. The limbs, in turn, were connected by thick skin, giving it the appearance of a furry, land-based stingray or a crawling carpet. However, it had no eyes and was almost completely covered in hair.

Hawkmon knocked the fombra off of his partner, impaling it with his feather. Thankfully, none of its copper blood got on Slade, much to the redhead's relief.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Slade exclaimed. "That was more than a bit freaky."

"Super Shocker!" Tentomon yelled out, electrocuting a few more of the invasive alien creatures. "Oh, how glad I am to find someone that isn't trying to kill me, unlike these things!" the hovering beetle exclaimed in relief.

"There's one behind you!" Slade exclaimed and the beetle turned around, zapping another fombra. Slade then kicked away a small one that threatened to nibble at his leg. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this mess. It made him wish he had brought a baseball bat or something, which he was going to file away and buy as soon as they got out of this mess.

The only alternative was to digivolve Hawkmon, though that tended to take a few seconds. It wasn't like the fombras were going to wait.

As if on cue, something was tossed just behind Tentomon, causing a small cloud of brown dust to form. Whatever it was, it caused the fombras to go after it and gather around it, feeding on the substance. After a few seconds, though, a number of fombras went limp, forming a pile of shaggy carpet aliens.

Slade glanced over to see the heavy guy who sat next to him in Beginning Programming and Physics, wearing a tan jumpsuit and shaking his head. "You know, the one thing fombras find irresistible is chocolate, so all you need to do next time you come across some carnivorous ones is give them candy. It… uh… also kills them since their biochemistry isn't, uh, compatible or anything."

"Thanks for the tip," Slade answered. Hawkmon just froze at the sight of the heavyset man, who just took the bird for a stuffed animal. Then he laid eyes on Tentomon. "What the..? That, uh, insect thing is floating."

"My name is Tentomon, thank you very much. Of course, you just saved us from those… things that were trying to make a meal out of me."

The heavy guy's eyes widened. "It can talk… Oh, man, I've just been abducted by aliens or something."

"No, you're still on Lincoln. These are just digimon, that's all," Slade answered him. "Though, yeah, that's still kind of weird."

"Okay, what kind of drugs was I slipped? Some dude slapped a patch to my neck while I was at the gym, didn't they?" the heavy guy shuddered.

"No, they're real. Take this guy for instance. This is Hawkmon." Slade then picked his partner up, putting the bird on edge as he came face to face with the curly-haired guy, who then touched him.

"Okay, that's pretty real. Yeah. Slater, right?"

"Slade," the redhead corrected for what must have been the tenth time that week. "You're Alastair."

"Yeah, that's me, alright," Alastair responded before clenching his teeth. Then he poked Hawkmon again. "This is definitely real."

"Yeah, it is. I'm part of a group that's trying to deal with any digimon that come from their world that want to cause havoc," Slade explained. "I guess you've been recruited with the giant bug as your partner."

"Uh huh," Alastair replied, not quite believing what was going on. "And here I was just here to do a job for one of the Families. This is more than a little weird, you know?"

"Yeah, it definitely is," Slade almost asked what Family Alastair was talking about but decided not to.

"And my job's extermination. Ho boy," the heavy guy replied. "Sounds like what you're doing."

"So, you want to help out?" the redhead asked with a smile.

Alastair just stood there, not really knowing what to say.

"To be honest, I don't really want to be a tamed digimon, either," Tentomon said. "I was just biding my time, working in a colony and minding my own business when I was suddenly knocked out. Then I found myself here, surrounded by… those things." The large, red beetle motioned towards the dead fombas. "This is _not _how I planned my life. I'm not a digidestined's partner."

"I guess it's mutual," Alastair responded. "I'll be going now, uh. Yeah. See you in school, uh, Slade."

"Alright, see you around," the redhead replied.

"What?" Hawkmon asked, dumbfounded. "You're just going to let him go?"

"Um, yeah, that's exactly it," Slade replied as Alastair walked away, towards another part of the park to deal with more fombras.

"But he's a digidestined. He was chosen for this," Hawkmon objected. "Did you _ever _hear about the digidestined?"

Slade shook his head. "Hey, he doesn't want to help us out. That's okay."

"But the original digidestined were summoned to battle the evil Mentiramon all those centuries ago. It was their destiny," Hawkmon added.

"Yeah? What happened to them?" Slade asked, folding his arms together.

"Oh, I've heard about that," Tentomon responded. "They were summoned into the Digital World but then they went into the Human World after one of Mentiramon's minions, uh, Mistymon, if I remember correctly, they were never heard from again."

"Exactly," Hawkmon added, "and from the stories, a short time later, the Digital World was nearly destroyed. There were other worlds in the sky where a number of digimon fled after Mentiramon continued her domination of the Digital World, but those were destroyed. My forbearers survived only by going through the rifts caused by their destruction."

"Ugh, that's pretty bad, man. You know what happened to the original digidestined or whatever?" Slade asked.

"Nobody knows," Hawkmon responded. "Like I said, nobody had any contact with them after they went through the gateway after Mistymon."

"What about what planet they lived on?" Slade asked. "Anything?"

"Nothing," the bird answered.

Slade noticed that Alastair was walking his way. "So, you know what to say?" asked Hawkmon, whispering into his partner's ear.

"Yeah, sure," the redhead responded with a smile. Alastair walked up.

"So, uh, that was easy," the heavyset guy told him, still nervous. "I, uh, found a few hiding spots where there were fombras, but other than that there wasn't much here. I certainly hope that Giorno guy's going to pay me well for this."

"A Giorno?" Slade asked, genuinely shocked. "Did the sisters decide to turn this into a fashion-themed amusement park or something?"

"No, it was the brother, uh, Timothy's his name. I think. Either that or Thomas," Alastair remarked. "Oh well, he better pay well. You know, I think this place really needs a better amusement park, though I don't know anything about that guy. It would, uh, definitely make some jobs."

"That's impossible!" Slade exclaimed, absolutely flabbergasted by the concept.

"How, Slade, could that be impossible?" Hawkmon asked.

"Well, uh, because Timothy Giorno has no interest in amusement parks," the redhead responded. "Plus, why would he invest in Victory City. He lives in Union City, after all."

"You know, that's pretty funny you'd say that," Alastair replied. "I was wondering the exact same thing. Well, uh, see you tomorrow." Alastair patted Slade on the back and walked away.

"What about me? Do you have a way of sending me back to the digital world?" Tentomon asked.

"Uh, no, I'm afraid I don't," the redhead replied.

"Ah, drats, that's not what I was hoping to hear," the beetle replied.

All the sudden, Slade's digivice started going off. "What the heck?" he asked as he pulled the object out of his pocket.

"Excuse me, Slade, I believe we may have some company," Hawkmon told him, pointing at a sphere to the redhead's right, a wormhole. And out of the wormhole came a large, red dinosaur.

###

**Victory University, Rec Center**

Just as he was about to sign into the rec center to work out, Doctor Barrowman's phone started to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out, irritated at the prospect of his stress reliever being taken away. He grumbled as he answered it, turning around and walking in the opposite direction of the check-in desk. "Hello?" he greeted as he walked through the doors and toward the commuter parking lot that he used.

_"Director, I believe we may have detected some more negative-massed particles,"_ his second in command, a red-haired woman, responded on the other line.

"Okay, where is it this time?" he inquired as he stepped onto the asphalt parking lot, inching more and more toward his car.

_"At an abandoned amusement park on Kipling. It's about twenty miles from the university," _his subordinate answered.

"Ugh, just great. Funny, I remember going to that amusement park as a kid. I wonder what happened to it," Barrowman mused.

_"It was closed down thirty years ago,"_ his subordinate replied. _"We're trying to access any cameras nearby, but unfortunately there aren't any close enough to see what is happening."_

Doctor Barrowman rubbed his temple in annoyance. "Okay, I'll make a call. I'm assuming the cops aren't willing to help this time?"

_"No, I'm afraid not,"_ the woman on the other line responded.

Barrowman nodded. "I'll be at the particle accelerator as soon as possible. See you then."

_"Good bye, director," _the subordinate replied before hanging up.

Barrowman got in his sports car and set it to drive to the Particle Accelerator. While it did that, he got on the phone with Garrett Giorno. "Good afternoon, Mr. Giorno."

_"What's going on? Any more incursions?" _the blond man asked.

"Oh, yeah, this is incursion number three," Barrowman informed him. "Unfortunately, there are no cameras we can access. Is there any way you can access a GPS satellite or something?"

_"I did invest in a GPS company a while back. I'll give you the access codes. I always leave a back door just in case."_

"Thank you very much. I need to repay you somehow," the heavy, grey-haired man replied.

_"Your work is repayment enough. Now, I'm going to be in town starting next week to have a closer watch over what's happening,"_ the blond man informed him.

"Alright, I'll see you then," Barrowman responded, doing well to conceal his dislike of that prospect. He had always distrusted the Families, especially with some of the rumors.

He had hoped for publically available rejuvenation by his age, especially since they had some nanotechnology available that was used in the medical field, but he knew that they were blocking that somehow. A company in charge of rejuvenation research had been mysteriously raided about ten years before when they were about to reach a breakthrough. Barrowman had a strong suspicion the Families were involved.

Then there was the space program, which hadn't expanded past putting satellites in orbit. He was definitely not looking forward to working with one of the people responsible for stifling such progress especially with the amount of resources available on other planets in the system.

###

Penelope had no idea what all the commotion was for when she arrived at the Particle Accelerator that afternoon. She quickly made her way to the IT department, where she asked her supervisor what was happening.

"It's classified, I'm afraid. You need higher level clearance to know about it," he replied.

"Oh, okay. So, uh, what do you want me to do for you today?" she inquired.

"Penetration testing. I need you to check the forms in our systems for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities," he ordered, walking her to her cubicle.

"Okay, thanks," she replied as she sat down, logging into her account. Even as she worked, her mind could not turn away from what the commotion was upstairs.

###

**Amusement Park**

The red tyrannosaurus appeared from the wormhole and ran toward the duo. Slade immediately pulled his digivice out and willed digivolution to happen.

"Hawkmon digivolve to… Aquilamon!" the bird exclaimed before flying in the air and aiming at the digimon with his horns.

As his partner was headed toward the digimon, Slade looked up data on the newcomer. "Tyrannomon, Champion Level, Data Attribute. Okay, I'm going to need my partner to explain this whole attribute thing to me."

"Do you, uh, always talk to yourself?" Alastair asked.

"No, just when I'm working things out in my head," Slade replied, grinning uneasily.

"This is definitely not my idea of an afternoon," Tentomon complained. "I'm just glad I'm not out there fighting."

"Don't worry; you shouldn't have to fight," the redhead replied with a smile.

"So, why are these digimon coming from the other side?" Alastair inquired.

"I'm not sure, exactly," Slade answered. "I guess they might be after Hawkmon, but I can't really confirm that. I guess he got in trouble with the local government just for being intelligent."

"What? Why?" Alastair asked, dumbfounded.

"The dictator of his country wanted a Marxist agrarian society of sorts, kind of like Pol Pot."

Alastair scratched his head. "I don't… uh… know who that is."

"A dictator in the late twentieth century, he killed more than a million people," Slade responded. "He ruled Cambodia, if I remember right."

"Yeah, I… uh… never heard of him," the heavyset man said. "The only dictator I know about from the twentieth century was Hitler."

"To be honest, I've never heard of either of them," Tentomon responded.

###  
>Aquilamon charged his horns, aiming at the massive red dinosaur he was up against, ready to strike. Unfortunately for him, he was attacked from the side by an unknown party, knocking him into a nearby Ferris wheel.<p>

The entity that had attacked him then went for Tyrannomon and grabbed onto his back. "Touch of Evil!" he yelled. He was clad in all black and had arms that were far too long along with a pair of horns and glowing red eyes which the dinosaur had in common now. "Well, Aquilamon, this is an interesting situation," the new enemy commented.

"Devimon…" the bird muttered under his breath, flying upwards before opening his mouth and launching a series of rings from his mouth. "Blast Ring!"

Devimon dodged with ease. "Now, go after the boy with the bug," he ordered Tyrannomon, and the dinosaur complied. He then turned toward the giant eagle with a devious smile. "You are my opponent, Aquilamon."

"Where did you come from?" The bird asked, annoyed as he aimed his horns at the tall virus. "You just came out of nowhere! Grand Horn!"

To the eagle's surprise, Devimon just grabbed the horns and flung him into a large, wooden roller coaster, causing it to collapse. "Oops. It's not as if anyone was going to be riding that thing anyway," the black-clad digimon said with a shrug. "It has most likely been at least partially devoured by termites or the local equivalent."

Aquilamon came up from the wreckage and spread his wings before flying upwards.

###

"Devimon, Champion Level, Virus Attribute?" Slade read from his digivice. "Where did this guy come from?"

"He's… uh… not the one I'm worried about," Alastair remarked, shakenly, tapping Slade on the shoulder and pointing at the dinosaur charging at them. He didn't notice a slight flicker around the spot he poked.

"Oh, crap!" Slade exclaimed, "Run!" he yelled and the duo ran in opposite directions. Tyrannomon ran after Alastair and Tentomon, though, ignoring the redhead, who just stopped and turned around as soon as he figured out what was happening. "Oh, sure, go after the fat guy," he muttered under his breath. "I'm a little too stringy, huh? I have more meat on my bones than it looks like."

###

Alastair ran, worried about his lack of cardiovascular strength. "And I was going to go work out too," he remarked quietly. "There are times when I really hate that you're my boss, dad."

"Who in the world are you talking to?" Tentomon asked as he continued following his partner, who ran around the nearest corner he could, realizing that there was no way he was going to outrun the giant dinosaur trailing him.

"Nobody, just myself. Good lord, how much work does it take to get away from the Jason the Dinosaur reject?" he asked, running around several corners before stopping to catch his breath. "I… definitely need to get… on the exercise bike… more often," he remarked.

"I'm not sure how that would help in this situation. You'd be stuck in one place, going nowhere," Tentomon commented.

Alastair scoffed at the giant beetle. "How do you know what an exercise bike is, anyway? I thought you were a bug?" he asked between pants.

"Oh, they have cardio equipment in my work. They're mainly for the flightless bugs, but… anyway. Oh dear!" Tentomon huddled next to Alastair as Tyrannomon moved behind the wall they were in front of, sniffing around.

"Now this reminds me of an old dinosaur movie," the heavyset guy remarked. "I think they resurrected an extinct species on this planet that resembled dinosaurs. Yeah, it didn't go so well."

"Oh my," Tentomon gasped.

"Can't you, you know, turn into a bigger bug like Slade's bird?" Alastair inquired.

"No, to be honest, I'm not even sure how Slade got his partner to do that," Tentomon responded. Just then, the T-Rex turned around the corner. "He's back!"

"Okay, run again!" Alastair yelled, running as quickly as he could, past a house of mirrors which he briefly considered hiding in before tossing that idea out with the thought that Tyrannomon could just step on him and it would be all over. He then had another idea to go to his car so he made a sharp turn, running toward the park entrance with Tentomon trailing behind him.

"What are you doing?" the insect asked as Alastair got in his car and turned the ignition switch. It wouldn't budge.

"Trying to get out of here? You want out too?" the heavyset guy asked.

"Oh, yes, I so do!" the beetle exclaimed. "Wait, is that even starting?"

"No, the transmission's kind of bad in it," Alastair responded.

Tentomon's eyes bugged as Tyrannomon just crushed the front gate. "Oh dear, he's here!" he exclaimed.

Alastair just sat there, frozen. "Is there anything you can do?" he asked his digimon loudly.

"I guess I could try something," Tentomon replied, flying forward. "Super Shocker!" he yelled as he created a burst of electricity in between his wings. The attack had barely any effect on the enemy digimon, who just shrugged it off and kept on moving.

Alastair knew this was going to be the end. To think that he could trust the digimon to… His thought process was interrupted when he felt his hand graze against the digivice that he found in his car earlier. His eyes lit up as he remembered when Slade used his to help his partner digivolve.

So he grabbed it, got out of the car as Tyrannomon lumbered toward him, and held it out. He was in danger, but at the same time, he wanted to believe that he could stop this tyrannosaur that was heading toward him by helping the beetle in front of him change into a stronger form.

So he did.

Tentomon felt the energy start welling up inside of him as he was struck by a blast of light from the digivice. Maybe Alastair could do something after all.

"Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon!"

Alastair was disturbed by the sight of the digimon in front of him, a large, powerful, blue beetle with two sets of wings and three sets of teeth underneath an eyeless, helmeted head. "What the…?" He reminded himself that Kabuterimon was on his side and took a breath before smiling. "Go get him!" he yelled.

"Electro Shocker!" the large insect shouted, creating a ball of electricity with his hands that struck the tyrannosaur, launching him backwards.

###

Devimon smiled as he kept Aquilamon busy. "Well, what do you know? It looks like he actually digivolved," he remarked, dodging another grand horn attack from his opponent.

"Yeah? That makes you happy because?" the eagle asked, flying toward Devimon, who he had corned against a wall.

"Well, I can finally leave for one," the black-clad digimon remarked, disappearing into the wall just as Aquilamon launched another blast rings at him, destroying the wall in the process.

Slade ran into the area just as Aquilamon did that. "Okay, where that horned moron go?" the redhead asked.

"He disappeared. It seems that getting Tentomon to digivolve was part of his plans for some reason," Aquilamon answered, flying downwards.

"You know, we could probably help Al finish his battle," Slade suggested.

"Good idea," the bird remarked. "I'll come and pick you up when I'm done."

Slade gave him a disappointed face as the digimon left.

###  
>Kabuterimon really didn't like to fight other digimon. For one thing, there was the part about him living in a relatively peaceful society that only resorted to violence in self-defense and only if all peaceful alternatives were used up.<p>

So that was part of what made the battle he was locked in so hard. "Electro Shocker!" he yelled, launching a blast of electrical energy straight at the red, lumbering dinosaur he was locked in a battle with. It was only out of defense of him and the human he was with and he tried his best to move the battle away from Alastair.

"Fire Blast!" Tyrannomon yelled, launching a fireball at the large beetle, missing narrowly.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon shouted out, striking the dinosaur and causing him to fall to the side.

"Wow, thanks for showing up!" Kabuterimon exclaimed.

"No problem. We just have to finish him," the eagle told his fellow digimon.

"I'll do that! Electro Shocker!" the beetle shouted, launching another attack straight at Tyrannomon, causing him to disintegrate before turning into an egg.

Alastair got up out of the car after seeing that and walked over to the egg. He crouched down as he examined it, looking it over and running his hands over it. "So, when you die, you just turn into one of these things?" he asked.

"Yeah, we sure do," Kabuterimon remarked, reverting to Tentomon.

"I believe it's time I took that." It was a new voice, one that Alastair hadn't heard before. He looked behind to see a man with long, blond hair and a mask.

"What? Where are you, uh, taking it?" Alastair asked, hesitant to give the egg up.

"Back to the digital world," the man answered. "You should know, the digimon that are coming through from the other side are criminals. This way they'll get justice."

"Criminals?" Aquilamon asked, confused about that part. "Even that SandYanmamon I fought?"

"No, he was an advance agent from the Avian Duchy, patrolling the desert you were in. His disappearance probably raised a few questions, though."

Slade finally reached the area where Alastair, Tentomon and his partner were at. "Finally," he said with a bit of shortness of breath. "Prior?"

"I'm back," the blond said. "I was telling your mate what your purpose was and how there was a new faction coming from the other side."

"That Devimon?" Slade asked, receiving a nod. Just then, Aquilamon devolved back into Hawkmon.

"He seems to be their leader."

"Then why was he intent on seeing Tentomon digivolve into Kabuterimon?" Hawkmon questioned.

Prior thought about that for a second. "That is a troubling development. I don't know, actually."

Slade nodded. "Oh, okay. That's pretty bizarre."

Alastair glanced at Slade and then at Prior. "So, uh, you're saying that our job with the Digimon is to help them change into, uh, higher forms and, uh, deal with whatever digimon come from the other side."

"Exactly. Now, to take this egg away," Prior replied, grabbing the egg. "We wouldn't want this to fall in the wrong hands."

Alastair nodded.

Then Slade thought of something else. "So, do you have a partner of your own?" he asked.

"Yes, I do. However, he's not strong enough on his own to confront these rogue digimon. That's why I need a team," Prior responded.

"And what does that have to do with changing the world for the better?" Slade asked.

"By dealing with these digimon, you will be able to ease contact between the two worlds so that it can go smoothly," Prior replied. "No, if you'll excuse me, I must leave."

Slade nodded as Prior left, walking around the corner.

"That guy's pretty weird. Did you notice he, uh, called you and me mates?" Alastair asked, confused.

"I don't get that either," Slade replied. "There's something he's keeping from us. At the same time, what choice do we have?"

"What?" Alastair asked, confused.

"Simple, if we don't do anything about the Digimon coming into our world, then they would just destroy everything," Slade replied.

Alastair nodded. "So, did that Prior guy choose us?"

Slade nodded. "I think so."

###

"So far, all we've got are blurry images of the creatures from another world," Doctor Barrowman explained to Garrett Giorno via an internet phone service. "As far as the kids they're partnered with, all we know is that one has brown hair. The other one was also blurry."

_"Strange. That would imply that the monsters are being shrouded by hologram or something,"_ Garrett responded, scratching his chin. _"Anything else?"_

"We think they're dealing with other monsters from the other world," Barrowman replied. "I guess that means that they could be on our side."

_"I still wouldn't take any chances,"_ Garrett told him. _"Since conventional weapons don't work on them, we'll have to find another way of dealing with them."_

"Get someone with a monster on our side," the heavyset man deduced, sitting back in his chair.

_"Easier said than done,"_ the blond man remarked.

"Okay, I guess we'll just keep on monitoring them," Barrowman suggested.

_"And for that, you'll need more funding to hire people to monitor these incursions,"_ Garrett Giorno realized. _"Okay, I'll give you a few million dollars more."_

Lyle Barrowman nodded.

###

**Union City**

Gene Hernandez wasn't a very tall man, about 5'7" according to the old system of measurement and weighing about 200 lbs. He had black hair and had a noticeable circle-beard around his mouth. Still, he was friendly and talked to most people he came across.

However, if any of them knew his profession, they would probably not want to deal with him. He drove up to the gate in his red sports car and was let into the mansion's grounds where he pulled up to the front. A valet opened the door for him and he tipped him before walking up to the front.

He wasn't a member of any of the Families, though he did work for them, particularly for some aspiring Families that wanted to get to the top. Plus, he got some of the benefits of working for them, notably the occasional rejuvenations which he was about halfway between, giving him the appearance of someone in his late thirties.

When the door opened up, the butler that answered it let him in and led him to the dining room where the Giorno sisters were waiting for him. "Oh, hey, how's it going?" he greeted before sitting down and slicing into the meat of a local bird.

"We have a job for you, Gene," the older of the duo, Annette, told him, eating some of her own dinner.

"Oh, I just got done with a job. Some heir was hiding over in Deseret," he told her as he put a bite into his mouth.

"Oh? We heard about that one," the younger, darker Claudia replied. "Very clever making it look like a home invasion. Anyway, we intercepted a phone call about our brother. Apparently he's hiding in Victory City and he just had someone clean up an amusement park for him."

"Wow, and here I thought that Tim kid was smarter than that," Gene told the girl. "At least that Workman heir I just dealt with was hiding in a dormitory at Smithtown College."

"Yeah, it wasn't very bright on his part," Annette told Gene. "Still, I would suggest going there and dealing with him. That way, if something happened to Daddy, we would be the sole heirs to the Giorno family name and its resources."

Gene grinned before he was passed a check for nearly a million dollars. "You'll get more when you get back," Claudia said seductively and with a smile.

"Thanks," Gene told them. "And hey, if I just happen to find another heir, I'll just kill him too. I have a list of fifty to get rid of."

"Thanks, sweetie!" Claudia told him, making him shudder.

###

A/N: I have to apologize for my lack of updates for this thing lately. Things have been a bit busy, unfortunately, and with school starting up again next Tuesday (my last semester!), it's probably going to get crazy again. Still, I have part of the next chapter written.


	5. The Unexpected Tamer

Chapter 5: The Unexpected Tamer

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the human characters in this story.

###  
>Nearly two weeks after Alastair joined the fledgling team of digidestined, the team made plans to meet at a deli near Penelope's work for a late dinner. Penelope was the first to arrive and buy a couple of sandwiches. While she was waiting outside in an inconspicuous corner, watching traffic go by just on the other side of the black iron railing, she let her partner out of her digivice. "Okay, time to come out. Just remember to behave," she warned Lopmon before letting her out of the digivice. The digimon came out in a white light and materialized in the chair next to the blonde.<p>

"Oh please, do you actually expect me to make a scene out here? Hah!" the three-horned rabbit joked.

"Come on, Lopmon, I mean it, especially since I got you a sandwich," Penelope warned the digimon with a smile.

"Awesome!" the digimon exclaimed. Unfortunately for the small digimon, the table they were sitting at was empty save for a small sign with a number on it. "Hey, where is it?" Lopmon questioned, slightly annoyed.

"It's coming. I just ordered it. Now, when it comes, you're going to have to pretend to be a plush toy again." Penelope had no idea how she was going to deal with having such a rambunctious creature with her, making her life a bit more complicated than it needed to be. Her junior year was already turning out to be a _lot _crazier than her previous two. Then again, at least she had already gotten into the groove of homework and wasn't likely to get as close to failure as with one class her freshman year.

"Hey, I've been practicing, so I can do that!" the rabbit assured her.

Penelope took in a deep breath. She had hoped that Slade had been there already, though things have been getting complicated with him since he just got a job, the first in his life. Thankfully it was going pretty well for him, which surprised her. Then again, if he would have gotten a job in fast food, he would have probably been laid off already. The blonde took in a sip of her iced tea before putting her plastic cup down, savoring the sweet flavor as it went down her throat.

The silence was getting on her nerves so she turned to her digimon. "So, what were you up to before coming to this world?" she asked Lopmon.

"Oh, this and that. I don't even know how I got here," the rabbit remarked. "One day, I was minding my own business as an unemployed Rookie digimon and the next I was in that factory."

"Unemployed?" Penelope asked, slightly confused by that statement.

"Yeah, I was working for one of the most powerful digimon in my area of the digital world as a part of an elite team called the Devas. Unfortunately, the rest of my workmates didn't like me and I got too many complaints from our subjects, saying I was too tough and everything and then they canned me. Can you believe that?"

Penelope looked at her partner with a bit of surprise. "Wait, so you were part of this team and they got rid of you for being too tough?" she asked.

"Well, I did botch a couple of missions because the digimon I was supposed to capture for interrogation wound up… well… a digi-egg. But it wasn't my fault, I swear!" the rabbit exclaimed before noticing a waiter coming their direction and going limp.

"Alright, two Rubens," the waiter, a pimply-faced redhead in his early twenties asked before Penelope smiled. She didn't react as the waiter put the plates in front of her and a vacant space on her right. The waiter didn't say anything about Lopmon and just walked off. Penelope waited until he was out of eyesight before pushing the second plate toward her partner.

"Awesome!" the digimon exclaimed before eating almost the entire sandwich in one bite. Penelope giggled a little at the sight before looking out into the dusk. She noticed that Lincoln Major was starting to rise, the moon's cloudy, red surface a partial crescent. The other moon, Lincoln Minor wasn't going to be visible for another five hours. She looked in the direction of Sol, a star so far away it wasn't even visible, somewhat curious.

"Whoa, sorry, I, uh, had a couple of jobs to do," Penelope was taken out of her reverie by Alastair, who sat down nervously, putting his placard on his left. "So, uh, how was your day?"

"Pretty good. I might be about to figure out how our little protester got into the Particle Accelerator's computer system," she told him.

"Yeah? Cool," the heavyset guy replied. He was still nervous around Penelope, though it didn't help that he was nervous around most girls. She didn't know of anyone who was his friend other than maybe Slade.

"Have you heard anything from Slade?" she asked out of curiosity.

Alastair gave her a confused look before shrugging. "I don't know. I know his new job's been kind of hard for him, but…"

He was cut off when someone with a dog walked up to the table. "Stop it, Laddie!" the owner exclaimed, trying to pull back the white Labrador with pinkish ears. "Sheesh!"

"What? Are you even supposed to have that here?" Penelope asked him, confused.

"Probably not," the dog's owner admitted. "He just started dragging me around."

Alastair recognized the owner, though he couldn't let the other man's name slip from his mouth out of sheer nervousness.

"The name's Demetri, by the way," the owner said in introduction before turning to the heavyset man. "You're Alastair, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah. You're in, uh, Beginning Programming, right?" Alastair asked.

"Yeah, I'm just on the other side of that Slade guy," Demetri answered with a smile. "So, this your date for the evening?"

"What? No!" Penelope objected. "We're just friends."

"Actually, uh, we just have Slade in common as a, uh, mutual friend. Yeah," Alastair added.

"Cool," the black-haired man remarked. "He seems like a pretty swell guy. Anyway, I'm just going to let you guys get going before anybody kicks me out. I'll see you at school, Al!"

"Alright," Alastair responded, cringing a bit inwardly upon hearing someone use his nickname. "Bye."  
>"See you later!" Demetri said with a wave before turning around and leaving, practically dragging Laddie behind him.<p>

"What was with that Labramon?" Lopmon asked. "I mean, it's like he's letting his partner just drag him around.

"What?" Penelope asked out of confusion.

"That was totally a Labramon," the rabbit said matter-of-factly.

"You're right," Alastair responded, looking at the dog's stats on his digivice.

"Funny, I wasn't expecting anybody else to have a digimon," Penelope remarked. "But hey, the more, the merrier. I feel like we're dealing with digimon incursions a bit too often, if you ask me."

Alastair nodded. "Uh, I agree."

"Yeah, like every two days is too often," Lopmon said sarcastically. "If you ask me: bring on the criminal digimon from the other world!"

"But, we've got busy lives," Penelope informed her digimon. "We're adults! It's not like we can just drop everything and go after these digimon."

"She's right," Alastair told Lopmon.

"So, where's Tentomon tonight?" the blond asked Alastair.

"Oh, I, uh, gave him my dinner earlier in the evening so I wouldn't, uh, have to, uh, pay for two meals here," the heavyset man replied, just as his sandwich arrived, followed by Slade, who sat down next to Penelope before releasing Hawkmon. "Oh, hey, it's about time you showed up."  
>"Yeah, sorry about that. I was working on my homework and I lost track of time," Slade told his friends.<p>

Penelope glanced at her phone. "Oh, wow, I only have about ten minutes left of my lunch."

"Ow, sorry," Slade began to explain, "I really didn't mean for this to happen. It's just that time gets away from me sometimes."

"Hey, it's not a problem. Schoolwork is supposed to be a priority," the blonde told him. "You wouldn't want to be like my friend Shelly who had to take a class over because he flunked it."

"Yeah, that would really suck," the redhead admitted.

"So, I have to go back in?" Lopmon asked her partner.

"Unfortunately. Sorry! Well, at least I have the weekend off so we should do something then," Penelope told Slade. "Have you ever gone bowling?"

"Bowling?" he asked, before blushing out of embarrassment. "No, actually, I haven't. I almost took a class on that in high school but I ended up taking Weight Training instead."

"Hey, that can be a useful PE class," Alastair told his friend. "I just took the basic Physical Education class and sat around, doing homework while all the other kids played basketball. Most useless hour-a-day stretch if I say so myself."

"Yeah, I don't think we had a regular PE class," Slade told him. "I went to the Union City Academy. Still, it was a pretty fun course."

"Whoa, that's pretty cool," Alastair said in amazement. "Did you ever have a class with Timothy Giorno or any of the other Families?"

"I had classes with other kids in the Families but I didn't have a class with Tim Giorno," Slade replied, feeling a bit nervous. "Most of them were brats, though. In fact, I wasn't even friends with any of them, to be honest."

All the sudden, Penelope felt a little self-conscious. "Hey, before I go, did you hear about how there have been heirs in the Families found dead here in Victory City?" she asked him, a worried tone in her voice.

Slade's eyes widened. "That's… really scary." For a second there, his Union City accent almost came through.

"I just figured I'd warn you. It's on the news," she added. "See you guys later."

"Yeah, bye. I'll see you this weekend," he told her, trying to leave the dinner on a positive note.

"Why would you be worried about that?" Alastair asked, slightly confused. "Unless…"

"Yeah, I'm a Family heir. Trust me, you don't want to be in my situation," Slade told him, shuddering at the prospect.

"Ouch. Don't tell me you're in hiding because of all of them."

"I am. There are a bunch of others in my boat too," Slade told his friend. "I'm pretty much resigned to spending the rest of my life as a Software Engineer in a firm here in this city, though from the looks of it there might not be much more of my life if this guy finds me."

Alastair didn't respond, instantly letting a wave of discomfort come over him.

"So, why are you on the run?" Hawkmon asked, curious.

"Well, yeah, there's this one Family, the Winchesters, who want to get rid of all the heirs to the other Families and take over their assets," Slade explained. "Trust me, Al, there's no way you should know this."

The heavyset guy nodded, his mouth wide open. "That's, uh, really bad."

"I know," Slade replied.

"Uh, I guess I better get going," Alastair told him, getting up.

"But you haven't even finished your sandwich," Slade told him.

"I'll, uh, get a to-go container," the big man said slowly. "Uh, see you tomorrow."

"You don't have to go," Slade told him. "Like I say, almost all my friends in school were regular people, not Family members."

"It's just… a lot to take in," Alastair replied. "Oh, and, uh, Demetri's got a digimon."

Slade raised an eyebrow. "That's crazy."

Alastair picked up his plate and left. Slade just let his head fall down onto the table in front of him. "Why does this have to happen to me?"

"Don't worry, Slade, he'll come around," Hawkmon told his partner.

"That's easy for you to say," the redhead responded, picking his head up from off the cold, metal table. "Ever since I was a kid, people have always treated me differently as soon as they found out I was a member of one of the Grand Families. The only one who didn't was my best friend Travis and now he's gone."

"Oh, that would be pretty hard. Now, when you say your best friend is gone, you don't mean he's…" Slade finished his sentence.

"Yes, I do. He's dead."

###  
>Later that night, after finishing his food, Slade made his way to the rec center and headed straight for the pool area, passing a short, bearded, dark-haired man on the way out. He wasn't interested in swimming, though that was something he did most days, but instead he went into the Jacuzzi, where Doctor Barrowman was, reading a book on a thin tablet that he held over the side.<p>

The grey-haired man looked up at Slade as he got in. "Oh, good, you're not the weird guy that was just in here."

"Nope, I'm kind of normal, just another one of your students," the redhead assured him.

"Good," Barrowman responded. "Hey, I almost didn't recognize you without my glasses. Slade, right?"

"Yup, that's me. How are you doing, Professor?"

"Great. I'm just enjoying a nice session in the spa after working out," the big man said with a smile. "You?"

"I could be better. A friend of mine found out one of my secrets and, well, he didn't react as well as I had hoped," Slade told the professor.

"Ouch," Barrowman replied. "If you don't mind me asking, what was it?"

"I'd rather not say. It's something that could get me killed if the wrong person heard about it," the redhead replied. "You haven't had to deal with that kind of thing, have you, Professor?"

"A few times," he responded. "Sometimes my acquaintances act a little weirdly when they find out that I'm 58 and I've never been married."

"Yeah, I've had that happen before. Were you ever in a relationship?"

Barrowman shook his head. "I've never had the time," he explained. "Life's too short when you're not a Grand Family member with access to rejuvenation. I was hoping to get some of that by now."

"Yeah, Professor, I think it's kind of pointless that they keep it to themselves," Slade opined.

"They say it's because they want to prevent an out-of-control population explosion but, if you ask me, it's just an excuse. Funny, nobody's really supposed to know about it but it's kind of an open secret." Barrowman laughed. "By the way, you don't have to call me Professor. Just Lyle's fine."

"Okay, Lyle, it's good to be on first name basis with you," Slade replied. "You know, if everybody had access to rejuvenation at the time of the Fall, we'd probably have avoided having all our technology reverting back to pre-industrial. Who knows, we could have ended up in touch with the rest of humanity faster."

Lyle nodded. "Yeah, I know, though a good percentage of the problem was this planet's heavy reliance on shipments from the Core Worlds, which wasn't going to be solved due to this planet's extreme lack of an industrial base at the time. Heck, I think Last Chance had more industry, if the history books are any indication, and that was a colony for only twenty-five years with a population of 500,000 before they cut themselves off from the Hegemony."

"Last Chance? I think I heard of that world," Slade remarked. "It was supposed to be one of six multicultural colonies before the Invasion of the US in 2121 when it was turned into the American colony world due to having a lot of Americans there in the first place."

Lyle nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"So, you mentioned something about a weird guy?" Slade asked.

"Yeah, there was just something off about him," Lyle explained. "I'd be wary of him if I were you. He's real friendly but I just get weird vibes off of him."

The redhead nodded. "What does he look like?"

"Short, stocky, black hair, circle beard," Lyle answered, causing Slade's eyes to widen as he nodded.

"He spoke with a Union City drawl?"

"Yep," the grey-haired man answered, filling Slade with even more dread.

###

Less than an hour later, when Slade reached his room, he sat down on his bed and turned on his tablet, hooking it up to his Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, putting the latter on his nightstand. As he did that, he brought Hawkmon out of his digivice.

"What is going on?" the bird asked, sitting down next to his partner.

"There's an assassin in town," Slade explained, "some guy named Gene. I remember meeting him at some events over the years but I know about what he's done."

"Oh my," Hawkmon said, covering his mouth with his right wing. "I thought that was illegal among humans."

"It is, but this guy's made a living over the past couple centuries doing dirty work for some of the Grand Families." Slade brought up the program he wanted and then reached for his left wrist, pressing along a specific spot, causing his skin to flicker for a brief second as he made a small, watch-like device appear.

"Where did that come from?" Hawkmon inquired, slightly startled.

"That is a miniature holographic projector. It's what's giving me my appearance. Oh, and I can also add some more appearances to it."

The bird found that all rather strange. "So, are you hoping to fool this Gene gentleman with a new appearance?"

"Exactly. This is just in case my current identity is compromised," Slade explained, working hard at designing some new looks that would seriously throw him off. One was of a petite and pretty blonde girl with her hair down and the other was of a severely obese man in his forties. The latter would make him inconspicuous largely because of how particular a lot of Grand Family members are about their looks. Slade only hoped that it would be enough.

###

The next morning, Alastair's phone went off, so he pulled himself out of bed, showered, got dressed and packed his books for the morning. He put his phone in his pocket and nudged Tentomon awake, much to the red beetle's dismay.

"Why must you wake up this early every morning?" Tentomon asked, getting the sleep out of his eyes.

"I got class in two hours," Alastair replied. His relationship with his partner was taking time to get used to. Still, he went downstairs and grabbed a couple bowls for cereal before walking into the dining room where an unfamiliar man was talking with his parents. His father had similar curly hair and a moustache, though he was noticeably skinnier. His mother was a dark-haired woman with wavy hair and a rather prominent nose.

"Good, there you are, Alastair," his father said. "This is Detective Hernandez with the Union City Police Department."

Gene Hernandez smiled. "Hey, how's it going!" he greeted.

"Uh, pretty good. What's, uh, going on?" Alastair asked, confused at the sight of a Union City cop in his house.

"Well, right now I'm on the trail of Timothy Giorno and you were supposed to do a job with him a couple weeks ago, am I right?" the detective asked, still jovial.

"Uh, yeah, but the jerk didn't even show up. I mean, seriously, I cleared that amusement park of all those fombras and then he doesn't even come and pay me. What gives?"

"Funny, that's kind of out of character for him," Gene remarked. "You didn't see anybody else afterwards, by any chance?"

It was at about that point that Alastair recalled how there were members of the Grand Families being killed and how Slade was one of them. _No way, what if this guy is… _A bit of dread filled him about then, but he answered with as much confidence as he could muster. "No, I didn't see anybody. Not a soul."

"Alright, thanks. I'll just keep on the lookout," Gene told him. "Let me know if there's anything else you find." The man got up and left. "See you around."

"Uh, bye," Alastair said.

His parents looked at him. "So, we still haven't been paid by the Giorno kid," his father commented. "No wonder the police are looking for him."

"Yeah, that _is_ pretty weird," Alastair remarked. "That makes me wonder what Tim Giorno did in Union City that made him leave."

"Who can guess?" his mother asked. "Personally, I think he just got in trouble with the other Grand Families and ran away. I mean, look at how his sisters act."

Alastair nodded before getting back up from the table, grabbing a couple bowls, cereal and milk and bringing them up to his room. He had a feeling his parents were wondering why he had that habit now, though he wasn't going to reveal the giant alien bug in his room just yet.

###

When Gene Hernandez left the Harrison house, he decided to access their phone records using his e-Servant, a type of personal AI accessed from someone's cybernetic implants that hadn't been widespread since the Fall, to find where Alastair's father got the call from. As the information came across his vision, he found out that it came from a payphone at the airport. He was surprised they even had payphones anymore since he figured that everyone had cell phones or could at least use internet devices to call people using the various wireless networks they could access, including the citywide networks that each of Victory City's boroughs had.

He then had his car drive him to a nearby park while he had his e-Servant access the airport's security cameras using one of many usernames and passwords that he had been provided by a number of the Grand Families over the years and found an image of the person making the call: a man with long, blond hair and a fancy suit, using a vocoder. He then ran the image through a number of civil records and found no match, implying that he wasn't even a citizen of Lincoln.

Slowly becoming more and more frustrated, he ran the match against local civil records all over the continent before switching to other continents such as Deseret and the arctic Septentriona, getting nothing from any of those either.

"Oh wow, that pretty much means that he had to come from another planet," he said with a chuckle.

Then he decided to run a pattern match using the image and matching it against the faces of many people in Victory City using facial-recognition software and the cameras that were all over the place.

He found a match, so he had his car set a course to a small café in Oceanside, a good thirty miles away and not part of the Victory City metropolitan area. He grinned as he did so.

###

Slade glanced up in his Beginning Programming class as Alastair walked in the room before taking up his usual seat right next to him. He was hopeful that maybe his new friend had gotten over the shock that Slade was connected to the Grand Families, though the heavyset man simply sat down next to him, pulled out his tablet with its Bluetooth keyboard, and started typing.

After a few seconds of that, Slade couldn't take it anymore. "So, I take it you have something against me for being… you know?" he asked quietly, hoping that nobody heard and that if they did, that they didn't take it the wrong way.

"I have it against them, but, uh, yeah," Alastair replied with a nod. "I'd say there are a lot of conspiracies out there about them."

"Half of them are true," Slade admitted.

"Oh, and another thing: someone came to my house asking for Timothy Giorno," Alastair told him, causing the hairs on Slade's back to stand on end as he suppressed a shiver.

"Short black hair, circle-beard?" he asked.

"Yeah. You know him?" Alastair inquired.

"I saw him at a few parties and fundraisers I got forced to go to," Slade told him, looking shiftily from right to left. "He's… not a good person. He swears a lot, and just gives off this vibe that makes me want to avoid him despite how friendly he is. His name is Gene Hernandez."

"Ouch, that's pretty much how I saw him when he came by," Alastair responded. "I didn't tell him that you were there at the Amusement park. I figured he's probably the one who's killing people off."

"Most likely. Thanks, man," Slade replied in gratitude.

"So, uh, how are you going to deal with him when the time comes?" Alastair asked.

"I have an idea, though I'm not sure if it's a good one," Slade answered, not wanting to give it away.

"Deal with who?" Demetri asked, just casually butting into Slade and Alastair's conversation. Slade just shrugged off being startled by his other friend.

"There's this creepy guy who's stalking me," he replied, not wanting to give away that he was in one of the Grand Families, especially with how many conspiracy theories Demetri had running through his head.

"What?" Demetri asked. "Oh, man, I just noticed this guy on campus a few times just staring at everybody. Short, stocky, and had that stupid circle goatee thing going on. Doesn't he know that only chin beards are where it's at?"

"Yeah, that sounds like him," Slade responded, hoping that it wasn't.

Alastair gave Slade a strange look. The redhead just shrugged.

"Oh, yeah, and yesterday..." Slade started to ask, but couldn't finish.

"You had a, uh, digimon with you," Alastair said point blank. He wasn't completely comfortable around Demetri, but he at least got it out.

The black-haired man gave Slade and Alastair a confused look. "How did you know Laddie was a digimon?" he asked, completely confused.

"Al and I each have one," Slade answered, pointing at the two of them.

Alastair added: "Uh, yours is a Labramon, apparently."

"Wow, that's super crazy, man. I haven't met anybody else with a digimon before," Demetri replied, grinning slightly. "I didn't even know anybody else got any."

"You were also chosen by Prior, right?" Slade asked, assuming the answer was yes.

"Nope, I don't even know who Prior is. Got mine a long time ago," the black-haired teen said. "I've had him for as long as I can remember. He's part of the family."

Slade was really confused about that part. "But I thought that digimon have been coming across from their world for only the last few weeks."

"I guess. I just thought Laddie was one of a kind," Demetri told him, giving a face that showed that he was just as confused as Slade was. "I didn't even know digimon were coming from the digital world. "

"How did you get your partner?" Slade inquired.

Demetri shrugged. "I don't know. I've just always had him." The professor came in at about that time, leaving Slade to muse over the mysteries of his friend's partner digimon.

###

Gene Hernandez reached the seaside restaurant where the mysterious blond figure was eating along with some yellow creature that looked like a cross between a long-haired mouse and a pig. He had his e-Servant run the creature against known species on Lincoln and found nothing.

The black-haired man smiled at the blond as he walked toward the table. It was a beautiful summer day, not too hot and not too cold, though it was rarely ever too cold since Victory city was located just outside of the tropics. "You mind if I sit here?"

The blond had a look of confusion on his face. Unlike the surveillance video where he was wearing a mask over his eyes, he didn't have it there, revealing his brown eyes for the world to see. "Go ahead," he responded in a strange accent that didn't belong anywhere on the planet. "What do you want?" he inquired as Gene pulled out a chair and sat down with the blond on the left and the strange, alien creature on the right. He glanced at the creature and noticed that the ears looked more like yellow-orange bat wings, though they couldn't have possibly been big enough for the creature to actually fly.

"My name is Gene Hernandez and I'm a detective from the Union City police department," Gene introduced. "I'm looking for any information concerning the whereabouts of Timothy Giorno."

"How did you find me?" the blond asked. This couldn't have been Tim Giorno. Gene switched his retinal implants to infrared, allowing him to see whether the blond was wearing a holographic display. He wasn't.

"I accessed the security cameras at Victory Intercontinental," Gene responded with a grin. _Hey, might as well tell the truth. _"Listen, if you think I think you're little Timmy, then rest assured that I know you aren't. I'm just asking if you _know _anything."

"Like I would tell you," the blond responded, clenching his fists and getting up. "Come Patamon, we're leaving."

The strange, yellow creature started fluttering after the blond as Gene sat there, thinking about what to do next. He decided that he was going to get that information out of this mysterious blond whether he liked it or not, so he followed him out of the building. When the blond was almost to the end of the parking lot, he turned around and faced Gene.

"You know, I never got your name," the stocky man said with a devious smile.

"Oh, like it would matter if you knew it," the blond told him. "I go by Prior, though my name is actually Benjamin Holmes."

"You're not from Lincoln, are you?" Gene asked, smiling even more widely.

"Of course not. I was born on Britannia shortly before the Fall," the man told him. "I would suggest that you stop following me."

"Oh, you want me to do that, huh?" Gene asked with some teasing in his voice. "Okay, just tell me where Timothy Giorno is and I'll leave."

"No," Prior told him.

"Alright, Benny, I guess I have to do this the hard way by extracting it from your brain personally," Gene replied, clenching his fists and allowing electricity to flow through them. Almost immediately, he launched a bolt of electricity from his fingertips at Prior, who got out of the way just in time by anticipating the attack. Prior then grabbed the digivice that was attached to his belt, something that made Gene assume it was a weapon, though it wasn't.

The device glowed as soon as it entered Prior's hand, causing a sphere of light to form around Patamon. "Patamon digivolve to… Angemon!"

The sight took Gene completely by surprise but the assassin used centuries' worth of training to suppress the shock as soon as he felt it, instead attacking the angel that had just appeared right in front of him with a bolt of electricity, something the large humanoid blocked with a spin of his staff.

Gene smiled at that one. He always liked a challenge, though even he knew when to fold them. Right now wasn't the time, though, so he continued launching blasts of electricity at the angel.

"Angemon, just finish this," Prior ordered and the angel caused his hand to glow.

"Oh no you don't!" Gene exclaimed, launching a fire blast from his hand, causing it to strike the angel and forcing his Hand of Fate to go off straight up into the air.

Prior frowned at the sight. From the expression on his face, Gene could guess that he was just annoyed that a human could have the ability to take on this strange creature that he had never seen before. At the same time, something about the Angemon seemed kind of familiar, though Gene couldn't place why.

Gene then shot a couple more fire blasts, created using some of his cybernetic implants and striking the angel in his chest area. Angemon looked up, gritting his teeth.

"I have to say that for a measly human to face up against a Champion-level Digimon is quite a feat," Prior commented, barely filtering out his annoyance. "But there is no room for your kind in the new world that will soon appear." Prior frowned, holding out his digivice again. This time, it had a purple glow and that surrounded Angemon.

"Angemon digivolve to…" The purple glow caused him to change into a different form, one with many wings, a long, purple helmet that resembled a priest's hat, and a purple sword coming from one of the angel's winged wrists. "... MagnaAngemon!"

Gene looked on in astonishment. "You've got to be joking!" he exclaimed, shooting out as much electricity as he could at the new angel and getting nowhere. The black-haired man decided it was definitely time to fold before the angel decided to go after him with that glowing, purple energy sword. Still, he couldn't believe what was happening. He sent a mental command to his car to start up and drive over to him as he launched a blast into the ground, causing a cloud of dust to appear around him and Prior as got in his vehicle. Then he drove off as quickly as possible, looking behind in the rearview mirror as he drove back to Victory City, hoping that the angel wasn't trailing him.

He wasn't, luckily.

###

Prior was only thankful that no one else was in the parking lot since it was in the middle of the day, though he was afraid that someone would show up and cause some commotion, resulting in digimon being revealed to the world before it was time. So, instead of having MagnaAngemon follow Gene back to Victory City and dispose of him, he decided to have his partner devolve back into Patamon, get in his car and leave.

"So, what are you going to do about that Gene guy?" Patamon asked his partner.

"Nothing for now. He could be useful," Prior remarked as his car drove him to the fancy mansion he was house-sitting for the Wilkinson clan. The fact that the planet's president belonged to such a rotten family astounded Prior to no end.

They were just one of the groups that would have to be sacrificed by the time Prior brought about his new world order.

###

When Gene reached his apartment, he had his e-servant bring up the call records for Alastair Harrison, deciding to approach the search for Timothy Giorno in a different way. He looked at the records, noticing that Alastair made calls primarily to family before getting the mission that was supposedly from Timothy Giorno but was actually from Prior in disguise. Afterwards, though, there were calls between him and someone else, someone named Slade Bennett.

This piqued Gene's interest and so he brought up info on the internet about Slade. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was only a handful of records about Slade. There was a birth certificate, though the parents didn't actually exist. The only genuine piece of public information about him seemed to be the motorcycle he bought. Still, he at least had a motorcycle licence. Glancing at the birth-dates on it, one according to Lincoln's calendar and the other according to the old CE calendar, he noticed something, causing him to smile widely.

"Well, look at that. Then again, there's no rush to go after you," Gene said to himself. For now, though, he was willing to bide his time. There wasn't any rush to go after his latest Grand Family pariah.

Instead, Gene just decided to hit the bars that night and enjoy some of the nightlife. Who knew, maybe he'd get lucky too. Still, he had another target, so maybe he'd go after him in a few days. There wasn't much of a rush, after all.

###

When Demetri got home, he took off his shoes and left them on the tile, taking in the aroma of his mother's casserole as he walked through the house, making his way to his father's office. He cracked the door open and was surprised to see the man sitting at his desk. It was actually the large doberman he wanted to talk to, or rather, Dobermon. The dog didn't have his giant, spiked collar around his neck, instead sporting a blue, spikeless collar that his father had replaced once he started having children.

Still, Demetri inched his way to his father's desk. The black-haired man was working on a project involving his laptop and an LED cube that was on his desk. The cube was showing a 3D representation of what he was working on on his computer. The man looked up at Demetri with brown eyes, though his skin was a bit lighter than Demetri's.

"So, how was your day, Demetri?" he asked.

"Uh, excellent, actually, except for one weird thing," the hat-sporting young man replied. "You're home early."

"I quit my job. It turned out that an old friend of mine needed my help with one of his little projects that had apparently gone awry." Elias Gonzales looked up from the computer screen. "So, what was weird?"

"I found out that a couple of friends of mine at school had digimon," Demetri remarked. "I mean, what are the odds?"

Elias was silent at that, astonished actually. "That's… very unusual. Did they… say why they became digidestined?"

"I have no idea," Demetri responded. "I guess some dude named Prior chose them or something."

Elias' eyes widened. "Prior? A human?"

"Yeah, exactly," Demetri replied. "Any idea why?"  
>Elias shook his head. "Last I checked, Digimon were the ones who chose digidestined. That was how it was with me."<p>

Demetri was surprised by the admission. "You mean you were a part of a team?"

"There were several others, yes," Elias answered. "As far as I know, though, I'm the last one left."

"You know, you never told me where you got Dobermon or where I got Labramon," Demetri told him.

"You received Labramon from Dobermon," Elias answered, typing away at his computer. "I received Dobermon from a digimon named TigerVespamon who chose my team. To be honest, we never actually defeated the digimon we were supposed to so I have to wonder if this has something to do with that."

Demetri raised his eyebrow. "So, how long ago _was _this?"

"Before you were born," was the vague answer Demetri received. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some old blueprints I have to bring up. In the meantime, I would suggest that you get in with your group of friends with digimon, especially since there's a possibility you may have to finish what I started."

Demetri nodded. There was no use getting in between his father and his work so he left the room. That was part of the reason he had wanted to talk to Dobermon instead. He had a feeling the dog would have been more straightforward than his father was.

###

Elias finished typing up his e-mail as soon as his son left the room. He glanced up at the paragraph he had written and smiled.

**To: Garrett Giorno**

** From: Elias Gonzales**

** Subject: Monsters from another world**

** I have confirmed that the monsters from another world that you have been investigating along with Professor Barrowman may, in fact, be the digimon I dealt with when I was younger. As a result, I would definitely suggest getting someone with digimon on our side, perhaps by capturing an egg, which is what I would assume enemy digimon turn into when they have been defeated. At least that is how it was with them when I was younger.**

** In addition, these new digidestined seem to have been chosen by someone named Prior. In the best case scenario, they were chosen to deal with Mentiramon, however, there is still a chance that this Prior fellow may have a connection to Britannia. Unfortunately, the only way to verify that is to go to Britannia ourselves, though I'm not sure if that is a good idea or not, seeing as we have no idea what is happening in the rest of Human Space at the moment. For all we know, the planet may have been destroyed two-hundred years ago at around the same time as the war involving monsters on that planet.**

** Please let me know what you think. **

**Sincerely, Elias Irizarri.**


End file.
